


I Miss You

by jipseebree



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Basically, Because of Reasons, Bed-Wetting, But thats how i write, Child Neglect, Crying, Crying way too much, Depressed Peter Parker, Depression, Diapers, Evil Morgan Stark, F/M, Gen, Infantilism, Insecure Peter Parker, Insecurity, Jealousy, Kid Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Needles, Nightlights, Nightmares, Non-Sexual Age Play, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Has Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Please Don't Kill Me, Precious Peter Parker, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, She’s Five, Teddy Bears, Thumb-sucking, Vomiting, Wetting, as i go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 40,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29324232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jipseebree/pseuds/jipseebree
Summary: May doesn't want him anymore, Tony and Pepper are busy all the time, his friends don't talk to him anymore and Morgan hates his guts. It's making him waste away, the depression. But he's coping. So what if he wakes up from nightmares in a wet bed? So what if he needs a little light or a baby blanket to sleep? So what if he sometimes catches himself with his thumb in his mouth? He's managing. He's just fine on his own... But that's not quite true, is it?ORTony Stark got used to having one child over the last five years, now he has two. He forgets. Peter can’t handle it and regresses to cope.*Don't like it? Don't read it. It's really that simple. Just read the tags.*
Relationships: Betty Brant/Ned Leeds, Happy Hogan/May Parker (Spider-Man), May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 596
Kudos: 673





	1. Realizations

Peter Parker was a mess. There was dirt and blood and snot and tears caked all over him. They had just left Titan after the whole fiasco. Everyone was back, which had been jarring. And Thanos was dead. Well, as far was Peter knew, he was. Tony was even worse than he was, covered in dirt and soot. He looked as if he’d jumped into a burning building. For all Peter knew, he had. No one would tell him anything. Everyone was absorbed with their own wellbeing or the wellbeing of their teammates. They had checked over him and determined he’d had nothing but superficial scratches and bruises, so they left him alone. Never mind, that he’d basically broken down over Tony’s almost death. No, it wasn’t important. Someone had taken Tony. That was what mattered. He vaguely remembers someone telling him it was all over and that he could finally go home- off this wretched planet. Then stepping through a portal with a bunch of other people. On the other side of the portal was the compound medbay.

He was rushed into a room, where he was more thoroughly checked out. There was nothing major, a couple broken ribs and a sprained wrist were the worst of it. The doctor’s wrapped up both and left him with some fresh yet generic clothes. He was grateful for the change and took the fastest shower he’d ever taken before putting them on. The bathroom was full of steam when he got out but he was clean. He needed to see Tony. They hadn’t provided shoes, but they gave him a pair of white and grey socks which he slipped on before creeping out into the hallway. Doctors and nurses were bustling by, quickly going from room to room. He stepped up to the reception desk and spoke the first words he had since he had left Titan.

“Mr. Stark, where is he? I need to see him.” he wheezed out.

The woman just pointed to a waiting area where Pepper Potts, a man he’d only seen out on the battlefield, Peter knew this to be War Machine, and a little girl he’d never seen before were sat. Peter slowly walked over to the group. Ms. Potts was shushing the little girl in her arms who seemed to be softly crying. War Machine was out of his suit and had his head down in his hands. They all looked up when Peter walked in.

“Peter.” Ms. Potts breathed.

She stood up, still holding the crying child in one arm and walked up to the boy, pulling him into a hug with the other. Peter had never really known Ms. Potts, she was always working so the hug took him by surprise.

“Ms. Potts?”

“It’s Mrs. Stark, now, Peter.” She spoke, breaking the hug and looking at him sadly. _Mrs. Stark?_ He wondered briefly what that had happened. The wedding wasn’t scheduled until the fall. Maybe she was practicing. He nodded mutely.

“Tony’s in surgery. I’m not gonna lie to you, Peter, it’s bad. Really bad. He’s coded a few times but he’s doing better now. Right now, all we can do is wait and hope he’ll be okay.”

Peter’s eyes filled with tears at the news. She noticed and pulled him into another hug. It was awkward because of the small child between them. Peter sniffed and Mrs. Stark pulled away again, leading him to a chair between her and War Machine who was now resting elbows on his knees as his leg jumped anxiously.

The little girl in Mrs. Stark’s lap looked at Peter with a watery glare and in return Peter gave her a look of confusion. Who was this little girl? She starred him down with piercing brown eyes. Her tiny teeth wearing away at her thumb nail. She couldn’t have been older than five. Peter’s eyes had long since dried as he looked at the girl in curiosity. Mrs. Stark had been texting with her free hand then put away her phone, shifting the girl in her lap. The girl’s stare still remained fixated on Peter and his stare on her.

Mrs. Stark suddenly noticed the tension between the two kids and turned her attention to them.

“Peter,”

Peter blinked and tore his eyes away from the girl to the woman who’d called his name.

“Peter, this is Morgan. Morgan, can you say ‘hi’?”

Morgan took her finger out of her mouth.

“Hi…” she said unsurely.

“Hi, Morgan.” Replied Peter. He tried to keep his tone friendly, even giving her a small smile. But the little girl just returned to glaring at him, Mrs. Stark didn’t seem to notice and Peter dropped his smile. He wondered distantly, what he’d done to deserve the treatment and trained his eyes forward.

* * *

Morgan Stark was five years old but she was smart. Smart just like her Daddy was. She knew who Peter was. She’d seen his picture in their house before. She’d seen her Daddy in tears over that picture once. She’d been looking for him to play dollies with because Daddy was such a good pretender. He knew how to do all kinds of voices and when she played with her Daddy, he never treated her like she was stupid. Not like other people did. They played Potions, which he called Simple Chemistry and he helped her read her books and they played Numbers together. Daddy said that it was called Mathematics but she had a hard time saying that word. She knew she was smart; he’d told her so. And he never lied to her.

So, when she saw him in his lab crying, it shook her to the core. She’d never seen him cry before. Not until that picture came out. She was smart enough to know it wasn’t the picture that made her Daddy sad, but the boy _in_ the picture. And she vowed to herself from that day forward that she did not like that boy one bit. Not if he made her Daddy cry. Obviously, this boy was bad news and the next time she saw him he was gonna get what the kids at school said; a knuckle sandwich.

Later, when she was coloring at the table and her mommy grabbed her and packed her into her car seat, speeding down the highway, she was rightfully afraid. Her mommy hadn’t said anything to her, opting to talk frantically into the phone about how ‘Tony was back and Peter was back too and Tony was in bad shape and she’s on her way to the hospital now’. Morgan knew Tony meant Daddy, she knew what a hospital was, Peter was not of importance, but ‘bad shape’? What did that mean? Daddy is in ‘bad shape’? It did not sound good. She hoped her Daddy was okay. He said he was going to work, gave her a kiss on the forehead and left. Now they were parked outside the “Hospital” and Mommy was pulling her out of her car seat. Rushing into the building with the big “A” at the top. Inside, it didn’t look like a hospital. There were people in business suits. And then they were in the elevator and Mommy didn’t want to put her down. She wasn’t letting her walk on her own. Then they burst out of the elevator and the familiar smell of “Hospital” burned her nose. Maybe this really was a hospital after all. Mommy asked for Daddy at a desk and the lady behind it pointed to some chairs where Uncle Rhodey was sitting. The man stood up and rushed over to them.

“Hey, Pepper. Morgan.”

Mommy set her down. There was a set of giant Legos in the corner of the room.

“Go play, Morgan.” Mommy had said, pushing her gently in the direction of the toys. Morgan knew there was something they weren’t telling her and she looked back wearily as she made her way to the corner.

Uncle Rhodey began to talk softly with her mommy.

“It’s not looking good, Pep; they won’t tell me what’s happening. They just rush past after telling me he was in surgery.”

“Oh, God. Surgery?”

“He didn’t look good out there, the snap really did a number on him. But, Pep, the kid’s back.”

Mommy put a hand over her mouth and Morgan watched out of the corner of her eye. She pretended not to listen.

“How is he?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him.”

Morgan decided she didn’t want to play anymore and ran to her mother hugging her legs.

“Mommy,” she began.

“Where’s Daddy?”

Then her mommy crouched down in front of her and took her hands in her own.

“Morgan. Daddy is very… hurt. Right now. And he needs us to be brave. Do you think you can do that?”

Her mommy brushed her hands over her arms and to her horror, her mommy’s eyes began to get watery. As soon as the water dripped down her cheek, the little girl burst into tears. She threw herself into her mother’s arms and broke down into loud sobs.

Pepper stood up holding the girl close, and wiped her own eyes. She needed to be strong for her daughter. She walked around the room, bouncing the child as if she were much smaller than five years old. Soon enough, the little girl’s tears slowed and she chewed her thumb nail, a habit she’d gotten into after being told off by the other children for sucking her thumb at school. Pepper sat down next to Rhodey on the hard plastic chairs and waited.

They waited until a familiar boy pattered into the room in just his socks. No shoes, Morgan noticed.

“Peter.” Her mommy breathed. Then stood up and walked over to the boy. Morgan didn’t pay any attention to what they were talking about, still lost in her slowly dripping tears, when to her surprise, the boy, Peter’s face crumpled and he began to cry, too. Her Mommy pulled him into a hug, squishing her between the two.

After that, they were sitting again and Morgan was starring at the boy. She looked at him remembering his face from the picture in her Daddy’s lab. The one he had cried over. The boy she swore she’d beat up for making her Daddy sad. He had chocolate brown eyes and round cheeks that had tears drying up on them. He was gritting his teeth together, probably to try and stop crying. He suddenly noticed her staring and wiped his face with the back of his hand before looking at her. She gave him her meanest look and he looked shocked. But he didn’t look away. Soon they were in a staring contest and Morgan was determined to win.

Then, suddenly, her Mommy made her say ‘hi’ to him. But Morgan was mad and wasn’t afraid to show it. Mommy didn’t seem to notice, but the boy shifted uncomfortably before looking away from her. She didn’t mind. Peter got the message that she didn’t like him and that was good enough for her.

* * *

Peter was uncomfortable. And he didn’t know where his phone was. That bothered him, he wanted to text May, Ned or even MJ, not that she’d care. He sighed. He was sure there was a phone he could use somewhere. He stood up and walked to the receptionist, Mrs. Starks questioning eyes following him, but she made no move to get up.  
“Is there a phone I could use?” the boy asked the woman behind the counter. She wordlessly pointed to a landline on the wall then went back to her computer, typing quickly.

Peter quietly thanked her and walked up to the phone, picking it up and punching in May’s telephone number. He was grateful he managed to remember what it was by heart.

“Hello?” spoke May.

“May?”

“Peter?” May whispered.

“Oh my God, Peter? Honey, is that you?” May sounded close to tears.

“Yeah, it’s me…” Peter replied quietly. 

“Peter…” She said, breaking down into sobs.

“May?” he said, shaken. Why was May crying like she hadn’t heard from him in a long time? He’d seen her this morning.

“Oh, Peter, I’m so glad you’re okay. I’m so grateful to have you back.”

Back? Where had he gone?

“What? I saw you this morning.” He replied, perplexed.

“Huh? Honey, no, it’s been five years.” She sniffed. Five years? What was she talking about?

“What? No, I saw you _this morning_.”

“Baby, I’m sorry, but that wasn’t this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you… I’m so glad you’re back.”

“May, you’re scaring me. It’s not funny.”

“Sweetheart, I wish this were a joke, but it’s 2023.” There was no way. Peter turned his eyes towards the nurses’ station where a calendar was hung up. A kitten was clinging to a tree branch and the cliché “Hang in there” was printed in cursive lettering. Under the picture in bold was SEPTEMBER 2023. Peter gulped. He shakily turned back to the phone.

“May, it’s 2023.”  
“It’s 2023.” She agreed. Peter’s eyes watered, what had he missed? Suddenly, it dawned on him. Ms. Pott’s last name. And she’d been pregnant, Tony had told him in secret one lab night. And suddenly there was a five-year-old in her lap?

“May…” he said suddenly overwhelmed.

“Oh, Peter, I wish I were with you right now. But the hospital needs me.”  
“More than I need you?” He said harshly.

“Sorry, I- I didn’t mean to leash out at you…” he spoke softly.

“It’s okay, baby, I understand.”

“Mr. Stark is in surgery… They don’t know if he’s gonna make it.” He said shakily, sudden tears rolling down his cheeks again.

May was quiet and Peter tried to get a hold of himself. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Peter, baby, it’s gonna be okay. I know it is. Mr. Stark is nothing if not a stubborn bastard. He wouldn’t save the world, just to leave it.”

Peter nodded into the phone, his breath evening out.

“Honey, I’m so sorry, but I have to go now. They’re calling me at work.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll be okay, though?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be okay.” He replied scrubbing his eyes again.

“Okay. I love you. I’ll see you as soon as I can.”

“Right. Love you.”

And she hung up. Peter stood there a moment, listening to the dial tone, before hanging up the phone himself. 

He walked back to his chair where Morgan had fallen asleep in Pepper’s lap and War Machine had his arms crossed over his chest. All they could do now was wait.


	2. My Heart is Lighter- Now That I See You

They’d spent a long time in that waiting room. Just hoping for news on Tony’s condition. When no news came, they’d wait some more. When finally, just as Peter’s eyes were struggling to stay open, a doctor stepped into the room.

“Pepper, I-” spoke the doctor. Ms. Potts stood up passing Morgan to War Machine and everyone watched with weary eyes. 

“He’s stable.” 

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“You can see him now, one at a time,” he said to the group. “He’s in room 10. I’ll advise you though, it’s not a pretty sight.” He said cryptically before leaving. Ms. Potts, no, Ms. Stark now, turned back to everyone. 

  
“You go see him, Pep, we’ll wait here.” Spoke War Machine, the woman nodded that was all the reassurance she needed before rushing through the double doors to see her husband.

Then they were waiting again. Morgan hadn’t moved since she’d fallen asleep earlier, but Peter was wide awake. The room was silent save Morgan’s soft breathing. Suddenly, War Machine’s phone buzzed in the quiet room, he pulled it out. 

“Can you take her?” He spoke softly to the teen. Peter hesitated, before nodding. The man gave a grateful smile before handing over the sleeping little girl. 

“Ill be just a sec.” he said, then left the room. 

“Okay…” spoke Peter, shifting the heavy toddler in his lap so she was lying against his chest.

But soon, a second turned out to be longer and ten minutes had passed and Morgan was stirring. She blinked her heavy eyes open. Someone was holding her and it wasn’t her Mommy. No, this person was too boney. She shifted and the person holding her almost lost their grasp on her. She finally looked up to see who it was and to her horror, Peter was holding her. Her eyes widened and he looked apologetic but she didn’t care. She did not want to be held by this boy. No way, no how. Not buts about it. She wanted to get down. So, she pushed and shoved and when that didn’t work, she resorted to kicking and scratching. 

  
Peter had no idea what was happening. In his shock, he just held tighter, not wanting the little girl to fall onto the floor. But this was the wrong thing to do, she breathed in a large breath and started wailing. People in the hallways started looking and Peter was just trying to keep her on his lap but she was wiggling so hard, it was extremely difficult to get a grip. Of course, he could have used his powers to hold her down, but he wasn’t gonna risk hurting a toddler. So, he fought with her, and she was kicking and screaming and crying. 

“I want daddy!” she howled. 

  
It broke Peter’s heart a little bit when she said that, but he didn’t let go. So, Morgan doubled her efforts and elbowed him in the chest. That got him to let go and she tumbled to the floor in a heap. Peter doubled over, when she connected with his broken ribs almost letting out a pained scream. But he held it in hissing and holding his arms to his chest to protect it. The little girl cried louder on the floor, her knees hitting the tile when she fell. Peter’s eyes dripping with quiet pained tears as he tried to pull himself together. It had just hurt really badly. That’s how War Machine had found them.

  
“Oh my God. What happened?” War Machine asked in shock, he rushed over to the pair. He helped Morgan to her feet and rested his hand on Peter’s shoulder, holding the little girl’s hand in the other.

  
“I want daddy.” She sobbed.

  
Her Uncle Rhodey gave her a hug. 

  
“You’ll see him soon, I promise.”

Morgan just sobbed in response. Rhodey pulled out of the hug and turned his attention to the boy next to him. 

“Peter what’s wrong?” he asked.

The teen hesitated, looking at the crying girl. She gave him a watery glare. 

“It’s nothing, Mr. War Machine. I’m okay.” He said looking at the floor. 

“You can call me Rhodey, Pete.”

Peter nodded without looking up. 

“You’re sure you’re okay?”

This time, Peter did look up, his wet eyes meeting the man’s. He nodded seriously. 

“Okay.” Spoke Mr. Rhodey, before bringing the two children into a hug. 

* * *

  
Morgan didn’t like this situation; Peter was taking her time away from her Uncle. She pushed herself out of the hug and everyone broke apart. Peter sat up in his chair rubbing his bloodshot eyes and Morgan crossed her arms moodily. Mr. Rhodey sighed. And then Mrs. Stark walked back in the room. She took one look around the room and went straight to her daughter. The girl reached her arms out for her and Pepper picked her up before sitting in the chair next to Peter. She wrapped her free arm around the boy and pulled him to her side. He leaned into the embrace with his arms still crossed protectively around his chest. 

“Rhodey, you go see now, we’ll be okay.” Pepper spoke confidently. 

Rhodey hesitated, but then walked to the double doors, disappearing behind them. The kids and Pepper stayed silent. Peter was getting antsy, he wanted to know if Mr. Stark was okay.

“…Mrs. Stark?”

“Hmm?”

“Is Mr. Stark okay?” 

She hesitated, and Morgan looked to her as well. 

“He’s um. He looks…hurt of course, but I think he’s gonna be fine.” She smiled. They were quiet again after that, content with her answer. 

* * *

About half an hour late, it was Peter’s turn to see the man he saw as a father figure. Rhodey sat back down in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs and Peter shot up out of his seat anxiously, walking through the double doors. 

Though the doors was a hallway, and plenty of rooms. He found room ten and creaked the door open slowly. Mr. Stark was in a white hospital room, but the lights were dimmed. Peter could see out the large windows that it was night time. A tv glowed in the corner of the ceiling. 

“Mr. Stark?” he whispered into the dark.   
  
Tony’s head swiveled around at the sound of his voice. 

“Peter?” 

People had been saying his name like they couldn’t believe he was here for a while now and it was getting old. He supposed it had been five years since they saw him, a fact he couldn’t quite wrap his head around. 

“Come here, Pete, let me get a look at you.” 

Peter obliged, taking a few steps further into the room. Mr. Stark took his hand once he was within reaching distance. Then to Peter’s utter surprise, he kissed his knuckles. The boy’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. They hugged on the battle field when previously they weren’t there yet, but this? This was really strange behavior. 

“I missed you, Pete.” 

His eyes seemed to mist over. And suddenly, this was too much. Peter needed to sit down. He didn’t see a chair so he sat on the edge of the bed. 

“May said it’s been five years.” He said. 

Tony nodded sadly. He didn’t like the sad look on Tony’s face. He tried for something happier. 

“I met Morgan?” 

“Did you?” 

“Mmm-hm.” He hummed.   
  
“And?”

“And, what?”

“What did you think?” Mr. Stark looked at him imploringly and Peter knew right there and then, he wasn’t gonna mention the fact that Morgan didn’t like him. 

“Um. She’s great! Yeah, she’s really great, Mr. Stark.”

The man beamed. 

“She’s a lot like me, you know. Smart as a whip.”

Then they delved into a long conversation about Morgan and Pepper and general life, boring things- avoiding any talk of the battle, Thanos or the snap. 

“But, yeah.” Peter looked at Mr. Stark’s arm, or what used to be an arm. 

“Do you think you’ll be okay, Mr. Stark?” Peter asked suddenly. 

“Me? Yeah, I’ll be right as rain before you know it, kiddo.” 

That was another new thing. Mr. Stark peppered in even more nicknames into his vocabulary. These ones much more endearing than before. Before, it had been, Kid, Pete, Spiderling, Underoos ect, but now it was kiddo, and he’d sworn he’d heard something resembling “Baby” but he’d never live that one down so he pretended he didn’t hear it.   
  
“Good.” Peter affirmed.

But now it was time for him to leave, Mr. Stark looked more and more exhausted with every passing second.

“Well, I’ll see you later, Mr. Stark…” he said, going to stand. 

Mr. Stark let go of his hand. 

“I’ll be seeing you, kid.” He yawned. 

He walked out of the room, heart light. 

When he went into the waiting room, Pepper took his place, this time bringing Morgan to see her father.

* * *

Later, when they had come back, Morgan seemed to be in a much better mood than before. 

“It’s time to go home, guys.” Announced Pepper. “I think it’s bedtime. Rhodey, what are you gonna do?”

“I think I’ll stay here. Watch Tony and all that.” He replied. He stretched before getting up to go to Tony’s room. 

Peter wanted to stay too, but Pepper had already grabbed his hand and was leading him out of the room, Morgan in her arms. 


	3. Chocolate Chip Pancakes

The ride home was uneventful, Peter sat in the passenger seat and Morgan was more than happy about it. He was far away from her. She turned on her StarkPad to watch her current favorite tv show, Sofia the First. 

“ _I was the girl in the village doin’ alright, then I became a princess overnight_ …” she sang quietly, her headphones on. 

Peter let out a small smile, he knew this song from somewhere but he didn’t think Morgan would appreciate it if he sang along with her. So, he watched the trees of the Compound become buildings and then the buildings of New York make way for even more trees. He wondered where they were headed. After about an hour, they made it to a little lakeside cabin, deep in the countryside. He wondered why they hadn’t dropped him off in Queens, but didn’t comment. 

They all got out of the car and walked into the fairly large cabin and Morgan went straight to her room, not looking up from her program. Peter stood awkwardly in the living room as Pepper walked through the door, letting it close behind her. 

“Here, Peter.” she said, walking towards the stairs as the boy followed. She walked to a door across the hall from a full bathroom. 

“This will be your room.” she spoke, opening the door. 

Inside, there was a simple bed with ugly floral sheets, a nightstand on each side and a bunch of cardboard boxes strewed around. Clearly a guest room. 

“Oh... Thank you, Ms. Potts- I mean, Mrs. Stark… but... why, exactly, do I need a room? I have a room at May’s.” said Peter, hesitantly.

“Honey, you can call me Pepper and Peter… can you sit down a moment?”

Peter frowned in concern but complied, sitting on the edge of the bed. Pepper sat down next to him and took his hand in hers. 

“This may come as a shock to you, but it’s been five years, Honey. We thought you were dead. No one could have known you would come back.” She put a hand gently on his cheek and gave him a sad look. Peter didn’t know where this was going. He looked at her, searching her face for any clues. He found nothing. 

“May, sweetheart, moved on. She has a smaller apartment now. She’s happier with Happy. I’m so sorry.”

Peter was shocked to say the least. He took a second to process it. She’s _happier_ with Happy. Did Peter not make her happy? And now she was with Tony’s chauffeur? _Romantically_? 

“They’re... _together_? And … they don't have room for me?” 

Pepper only looked at him sadly. 

“Then where am I supposed to go?” he said anxiously. 

“Don’t worry, you’ll stay here.” 

Peter took another moment to process what he was hearing. May… she didn’t want him anymore?

“Mommy!” Morgan’s voice called from the other room. 

Pepper sighed before standing up unaware of Peter’s internal battle.

“The boxes are your things. I’ll help if you need me to, just call.” 

Peter shook his head, he wasn't sure why, it could have been to clear his thoughts, to refuse help or to deny that May simply gave him up. Pepper gave him one last look, before leaving the room. 

Peter sat for a while just thinking. May didn’t need him, she had Happy now. What a strange thought. He stood, going to one of the boxes before opening it. Inside were his clothes. He opened another one, sheets. Another one, more clothes and another held some old toys he’d grown out of. One of the toys being an old teddy bear with a red ribbon around the neck. It was a little dusty, but otherwise untouched. He opened another box. Inside were electronics and with them, his old phone and it’s charger. He took it out and plugged it into the wall socket by the bed before sitting on the floor. He turned it on. 1% battery but it was climbing ever so slowly. 

He opened Instagram and was flooded with pictures of old classmates. Lots of them in colleges, some having gotten engaged or even married, and one or two actually having a child. He immediately thought of Ned and MJ, going to their pages. They hadn’t been updated since 2018. He breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, that was a sign they’d been dusted too and he wasn’t quite so alone. He shot a text to Ned before exiting out of the app. He needed to call May, hear her side of the story. See if it was true; that she really didn’t need him. 

He went into his contacts and tapped May’s number before putting the phone to his ear. 

May answered fairly quickly.

“Hello?”  
“Hey, May.”

“Peter! Honey, how are you?”

“I’m okay… How are you?” she’d raised him nothing if not courteous.

“I’m good, Baby, I’m good.”

There was an awkward silence. Since when was it so hard to talk to her?

“So...I heard you’re with Happy now?” he began.

“Yeah, yeah, I am. He, ironically, makes me happy.” she gushed. 

“So, I’ve heard.”

“We got married in the spring- about a year ago now.”

“Congratulations.” 

“Thank you, Baby.”

“I also heard you moved?”

There was silence for a second. 

“Yes. We got a small apartment together a while back.”

“Oh.”

“I’m so sorry Peter, I know you loved the apartment-”

“It wasn’t the apartment I loved.”

“I know, Honey, I’m sorry. But Happy and I… we’re expecting and-”

Peter felt like a bomb had been dropped on him.

“Expecting...like… a baby?”

“Yes. In the spring. But honey, you have to understand,” she rushed out. “We can’t afford to take care of two children-”  
Peter bristled. 

“What, Mr. Stark isn’t paying Happy enough?”

May sighed on the other line.

“Maybe, I can talk to him. Ask him to give Happy a raise. I can’t just not live anywhere-” Peter began to plead, but he was cut off.

“We gave Pepper and Tony custody of you, you’ll be living there.”

“But, May-”  
“No, buts Peter. We can’t take care of you. I’m sorry. I love you.”

“If you loved me, you’d make room for me.”

“You know we’ve always been tight on money.”  
“But that was before, now you have two incomes.”  
“But now, we also have a baby on the way.”

Peter began to feel a deep sadness. 

“But, what about me?”

“Tony loves you, he and Pepper would be better at taking care of you.”

“But, what if I don’t want them to take care of me? What if I want you?”

She sighed in frustration.

“Peter, in the eyes of the law, you’re not mine anymore. That doesn’t change the fact that I still love you but, I can’t do this anymore.”  
So there it was. The truth. She really _didn’t_ want him anymore. It wasn’t this ‘ _we can’t afford two kids_ ’ bullshit. She was tired of him. But how could he blame her? She had never wanted him in the first place. She finally got rid of him, got used to him not being around anymore, and made a life of her own. _Without_ him in it. Just like she was destined to be before he showed up, orphaned for the first time. He wanted to be angry, but he just couldn’t.

"Oh... I get it." 

There was silence for a moment and then May sighed. 

"Tony will take care of you, honey. You can visit me anytime. I love you." 

_Visit_.

A piece inside Peter's heart broke.

“I love you, too.” 

He hung up a lump in his throat. 

Well. He guessed that was it, he probably wouldn't be seeing much of May anymore. It sucked. It more than sucked. It was _devastating_. He’d lost his last remaining family member and it was by her own choice. He took a deep breath and stood up. He wouldn’t break down. He’d done enough crying lately. He sat on the edge of the bed. Might as well unpack. 

Morgan was over the moon, her mommy was playing tea party with her and she hadn’t seen Peter in hours. Then her mood was shattered as her mommy stood up.

“I need to go to work, Morg, but you can play with Peter, right?”

She left without an answer, looking at her phone. 

Morgan pouted. She would most definitely not be playing with Peter. 

* * *

Days passed and Tony was finally well enough to go home. Peter has stayed close to his room, only coming out for meals. He hadn't really talked to anyone. Sometime during that time, he’d started developing nightmares, waking up panicking and crying. Pepper came sometimes but soon enough, she’d been coming less and less, Peter wondered if maybe it’d started to get old. 

That night was the last night before Tony actually came home and Peter had had the worst nightmare yet. 

_He was on Titan again._

_“Mr. Stark I don’t want to go.”_

_And he was dusted once more. He was in the soul stone. Lost and afraid. He’d found the ones he’d been on the battlefield with. Mr. Star Lord and Dr. Strange. He’d even found some of the Avengers, people like Falcon and Wanda. But it didn’t matter because he hadn’t found Mr. Stark. And suddenly, he was back on Titan. Fighting in his Iron Spider suit. And just as suddenly, it was over._

_“And… I… am… Iron Man.” And Mr. Stark snapped his fingers, there was a blast and when the dust settled, he had stopped breathing._

_“We won, Mr. Stark. We won.” and Peter was sobbing and Rhodey was leading him away. And Mr. Stark didn’t wake up. Not like he was supposed to. He couldn’t hear his heartbeat anymore. No comforting thump. Nothing. Peter cried even harder, Rhodey gently pushing him down onto the dusty dirt floor of Titan, so he wouldn’t fall over in his grief. His sobs were loud and childish behind his hands ringing in his own ears, and Pepper’s were soft, almost inaudible. They’d won, but at the cost of his last remaining father figure’s life. Peter wondered what he’d done to deserve this treatment in life. To lose another parent. He cried and cried and then he’d felt a warm wetness and he felt like he was drowning again._

He jerked awake, sitting ramrod straight in his bed, tears pouring out of his eyes. Tony was dead. He couldn’t hear his heartbeat in the cabin. Peter was destroyed. 

He cried into his hands in anguish. He wanted Tony, here, _now_ . But the man was dead. And he had to continue on without him. He shifted and wrapped his arms around his chest, when he felt the warmth again. It was a wet warmth. On his legs. He looked down, peeling back the blankets. The unmistakable scent of urine hit him. He’d wet the bed. At sixteen years old. A sob escaped him. He didn’t know where the washing machine was, he was distraught, he wanted Tony. How was he supposed to fix this?

  
He climbed out of bed, his pajamas sticking to him soggily. It was time for a shower, he guessed. He sniffled as he went to his drawers and picked out another pair of pajamas and his towel before creeping into the hallway. Thankfully, no one was awake and it was still dark. He closed his door and inched toward the bathroom. Once Peter finally made it inside, he stripped out of the wet clothing and into the shower putting the temperature really hot. He stood there for a while, relishing in the heat the shower provided, before scrubbing himself down. The soap was Morgan’s _Watermelon Blast_. They hadn’t had a chance to buy soap for him yet so he’d had to deal with the sickly sweet scent for almost a week now.

After getting out of the shower, he dried himself off and put his new pajamas on, they were warm from the steam. He noticed the top had a cartoon picture of iron man on it and it almost sent him into a fit of hysterics. He stopped and took a deep breath, he needed to get a hold of himself. Then, made his way back to his bedroom, dirty clothes in hand and set them on the wet bed before stripping it of its sheets and blankets, wrapping them into a large ball. He carried it out into the hallway and wandered around the house, looking for the washing machine. The boy finally found the laundry room, stuffing the ball into the washing machine and adding detergent. He then sat down on the tile floor to wait. 

Twenty minutes later, he switched the sheets to the dryer and set it to dry. That would take about an hour. He laid down, content to watch the sheets tumble around until his eyes grew heavy. He fell asleep on the cold floor, exhausted. An hour later, the loud beep of the dryer woke him up, out of a dreamless sleep. And he stood up, pulling the fresh warm laundry out. He made his way to his bedroom and after placing his towel on the wet patch, replaced the sheets on the bed. Tossing the blankets on top. He rubbed his eyes tiredly before crawling in and promptly falling asleep again, toasty yet troubled. 

* * *

He woke up to screaming. It momentarily panicked him but he realized it was a happy scream. Morgan’s happy scream from downstairs. 

“ _Daddy_!”

Tony? Was Tony _alive_ ? And he was _here_? He jumped out of bed in one fell swoop, rushing to brush his teeth and use the toilet as fast as humanly possible before running down the stairs. He stopped abruptly at the bottom with wide eyes. Mr. Stark looked happy, he had Morgan in his arms, talking to her with a big smile on his face. He didn’t notice Peter had even walked in. Or rushed in, more precisely. But Tony was alive. A rush of relief hit him and he almost stumbled to the floor weeping with relief. But he didn’t. The man started towards the kitchen. 

“How about a juice pop?” he asked the five year old. 

Morgan cheered. Pepper walked in from the kitchen when she heard that one. 

“Tony, it’s 8am.” she laughed but allowed it to happen anyways. Tony and Morgan disappeared into the kitchen while Pepper went out the front door after giving them both a kiss goodbye. Peter blinked. They hadn’t noticed him at all. _What if they had, but they were just ignoring him?_ A small part of him taunted. No, he was being dramatic, he decided. No need to get all worked up; it was fine. He simply walked towards the kitchen. 

There was laughter. Morgan was telling Mr. Stark an outlandish story about her dream the previous night. 

“And you were there, too, Daddy! And then you became Iron Man and you fought the dragon, Daddy. Are dragons real? Can we keep one?” she asked, licking some of the juice her popsicle had dripped onto her hand.

Tony pulled his sleeve over his hand and wiped her face clean as she giggled. 

“Sorry, Maguna. No dragons. At least, not that I’ve seen. But even if there were, we would most definitely _not_ have one as a pet. You know how big their poops would be? They’d cover the yard!” 

Morgan began to laugh hysterically and Peter cracked a smile from his place leaning in the doorway. 

Morgan’s laughs simmered down and she went back to her juice pop. 

“Daddy-” she stopped, her eyes meeting Peter’s. Tony turned around, following her eyes. Peter looked back at the little girl uncomfortably before turning to Tony. A smile grew on the man’s face and Peter couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Pete! How ya doing, kid?” 

Peter shrugged but didn't say anything. The older man stood from his chair before pulling Peter in a hug. The boy hugged back, remembering a time when they weren’t there yet.  
“Hey, Mr. Stark.”

In the corner of his eye, he saw Morgan’s face grow murderous and he let go. Her frown stayed on but not as mean as before. Peter saw this as a win. He’d decided the other day that somehow, he was going to get Morgan to like him. 

“Daddy,” she whined, pulling at her father’s sleeve. The man turned around and just like that, Peter had disappeared into the background again. It hurt just a little, but Morgan’s eyes lit up when the attention was on her and Peter liked to see her happy. 

“Yes, Maguna, love of my life, my child, my one and only?”

Peter felt his heart sink but shook it off, there was no reason to be feeling sad right now. So, what if Mr. Stark showed affection to his daughter- his real actual child- more than him? He had no right to it, he didn’t deserve it. 

“Daddy, I’m hungry. Can we have pancakes with chocolate chips?”  
“Chocolate chip pancakes coming right up. Pete, take a seat.” The billionaire said standing to gather the ingredients. 

Peter complied, sitting at the small breakfast table across from his new little sister. As soon as Tony turned his back she glared at him. Peter looked away watching the man he used to know as the one who never touched a stove- to the man who cooked chocolate chip pancakes for his children. 

Peter wasn’t sure he should consider himself Tony’s child even though he legally was now, so he amended himself. The man who cooked pancakes for his child and Peter who was just kinda there. That would have to do, he told himself. That would have to do.


	4. It’s Not Avengers Stuff

The next day, it was time for Peter to go back to school. He’d had another… _incident..._ that night, after a particularly vicious nightmare, but he’d managed to clean it up without anyone noticing at three AM. Now he donned his Midtown High long sleeve shirt, jeans and put on his shoes then walked out of his new bedroom- or the guest room- with his backpack on his back. He walked down the stairs to the kitchen where he saw Tony serving Morgan some FrootLoops. 

“Hey, kiddo.” Said Tony to the teen, pouring milk into his daughter’s bowl. 

Morgan ignored Peter completely and dug into her cereal with her spoon. 

“Hey, Mr. Stark.” Peter replied, setting his bag down next to his chair across from Morgan at the breakfast table. She didn’t look up.

“Daddy, can I have some water?” she said after she swallowed. 

“Of course, Morg,” replied her father. 

The man grabbed a purple plastic cup from the top shelf of a cupboard then filled it with water from the sink. Peter sidestepped him and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard before making his own bowl of cereal. He wished they had something other than FrootLoops as he wasn’t the biggest fan of the sugary cereal, but it was Morgan’s favorite. He hoped she didn’t mind that he was having some. He sat back down at the table where Tony was drinking his coffee. 

“Happy’s gonna take you guys to school today. He usually takes Morgan.” _But now you’re here_ went unsaid. Peter nodded, picking at his breakfast. Morgan finished her cereal and slurped the milk before setting the bowl back down on the table. She wiped her face on her sleeve and Tony looked on fondly. 

Peter chewed his cereal more than necessary, forcing it down his throat before he couldn't eat it anymore. The soggy loops floated around in the pink milk and he pushed them around with his spoon. 

Without warning, the beep of Happy’s car horn alerted them that he was there and Morgan scrambled out of her chair, the screech of the wooden legs across the tile floor making Peter wince. 

He stood up too and before he could reach it, Tony had grabbed both his and Morgan’s bowls and brought them both to the sink to wash.

“Mr. Stark, you don't have to do that. I can wash my own dish-”  
“Nonsense Pete, you’re gonna be late. You of all people know that Happy doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Go on.” he shooed.

Peter looked torn for a moment before he gave in, reaching for his backpack on the floor and putting it on. 

“ _Daddy_! I need help with my shoes!” Morgan called from the other room. Tony wiped his hands on a hand towel, before walking past Peter towards the voice. Peter turned around and followed, curious. 

Morgan was sitting by the front door on the ground, her backpack on and her stockinged feet splayed out in front of her. She had one light-up pink sneaker on. Tony bent down and put on the other one, before tying them both. Peter watched on in the background, a sense of longing in his heart. He didn’t need his shoes to be tied for him anymore, but he wished he, too, could have Mr. Starks undivided attention and love. Not that he needed it. No, Morgan was only five. She needed a father more than he did. She deserved a father.

Morgan beamed then put her arms out. Tony put his arms under hers and lifted her to her feet. She then took his hand and led him to the door, it shut behind them. Peter stood for a moment alone in the cabin. He watched them through the screen door as they walked to the car, hand in hand. He bit his lip and wondered distantly if he stayed inside, how long would it take for them to notice he hadn’t followed. He decided he didn’t want to find out the truth. It would probably break his heart. Then, he took a step outside to stand for a moment on the porch. 

Tony was buckling the little girl into the backseat as Peter watched from a distance. Happy raised an eyebrow at the boy from where he was standing next to the sleek black Audi and Peter swore he saw concern flicker through his face, but it was gone as fast as it came. The boy took this as a sign to move and he walked to the other side of the car. Tony finished buckling in the little girl and kissed her forehead, Peter felt a pang of jealousy and looked away, focusing on buckling his seatbelt and putting his bag on the floor by his feet. He shouldn’t be jealous, Mr. Stark wasn’t his dad.

“Have a great day at school,” said Tony, and Peter almost responded with a thank you but it died on his lips as he realized Tony was only talking to Morgan. She reached for another hug from her place in her carseat before letting Tony out of the car. 

“Bye, Daddy! Love you!”

“Love you, too, Maguna. See ya, Pete.”

Peter felt another pang of jealousy at that and bit his lip to keep the hurt inside. One day Mr. Stark might say he loved Peter, too, he guessed they weren’t there yet. He schooled his face into what he hoped was a genuine smile, before waving. 

“Bye, Mr. Stark.” 

The man gave a small wave back before shutting the door. Peter let his face fall and looked out the opposite window, away from the cabin. Happy rolled out of the driveway and Peter turned towards the rearview window, watching as Tony went back into the house. When he was out of sight, the boy turned back around only to be hit in the chest by a small fist. He grunted softly at the impact. 

“ _My_ Daddy.” Morgan glowered at him from her seat. Peter rubbed his chest with his hand, it hadn’t hurt as much as it had just surprised him. He glanced at Happy, who didn’t seem to have heard. 

“I know.” he replied back softly. 

Morgan gave a look that said _you better_ then she turned and looked out her window content with his answer. Peter looked out his own window and sighed. He thought he’d been doing better than this, he thought Morgan was starting to like him, but it seemed like he was wrong. 

* * *

The ride to school was uneventful after that. 

They pulled up to an elementary school. It was much bigger and fancier than the elementary school Peter had gone to. Happy got out of the car and gave Morgan her bright pink backpack, that was much too big for her body, after he’d pulled her out of her car seat. He closed the door and took her hand, effectively locking the teenager in the car by himself. Peter sighed as he watched Happy and Morgan disappear into the school. 

It was a little cold in the car now that it was off and Peter brought his legs to his chest, then dug his phone out of his bag. He turned it on and noticed there were no notifications. Well, nothing that was important. He deleted any emails he’d gotten throughout the night. All promotional ads and more garbage. 

He checked his text messages and noticed he’d received nothing from Ned. He’d tried to reach out to the other boy a handful of times over the last few days but hadn’t gotten any sort of response. Peter shivered. Happy had been gone for at least ten minutes now and it was starting to get even colder in the car. It was fall now and winter was in a couple months but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still cold out. Especially since Peter had had trouble thermoregulating ever since the spider-bite when he was fourteen. 

He hugged his legs closer for warmth pulling his jacket out of his backpack and putting it on. He wrapped the fabric tight around his body and set his forehead on his knees. Where the hell was Happy?

Abruptly, the driver seat door yanked open and the man himself got in. He turned on the car and Peter was grateful when semi-warm air began to flow from the vents. 

“Sorry, kid, I had to talk to Morgan’s teacher about dropping her off, I should have taken you with me.” 

Peter shrugged. 

“It’s okay.”

He blew hot air on his hands. Happy looked at him guiltily from the rearview mirror and Peter looked away. He didn’t like that look. Happy turned his eyes to the road and the car started moving again. 

“Shit,” said Happy, pulling up to Midtown High. There was no one around, school had already begun. Peter couldn’t help but agree. _Shit_. He was late. And on his first day back too. 

“Thanks for the ride, Happy.” Peter said uncurling from his seat. He picked up his bag and opened the door. Much to his surprise, Happy turned off the car and got out too. Peter wondered if Happy was gonna hold his hand and walk him to class just like he did with Morgan. Peter found himself wanting that to happen but refrained when the man walked past him, towards the school. 

“Uh, Happy?” Peter asked, catching up with him. Happy only kept walking. 

“Where are you going?” 

Happy held the door open and Peter walked through. 

“You’re late, kid, I have to sign you in.”

Peter felt a rush of happiness. Happy cared, otherwise he would have just let Peter get reprimanded by his teachers. The happiness turned to guilt in his stomach. Happy didn’t look too pleased about the situation. He probably had better things to do, Peter thought. 

They entered the office and approached the secretary. 

“I’m here to sign in Peter Parker.” he told her. 

“You just have to sign here that you dropped him off late.” she replied.   
Happy grumbled as he signed the paper and the guilt Peter felt intensified. He wondered if Happy was somehow angry with him though Peter couldn’t think of why, it wasn’t his fault they were late. _But if you weren’t here, Happy wouldn’t have to do this_ , a small voice told him. _He could have just dropped off Morgan and be on his way to do whatever it was Happy did in his free time_. His heart clenched. 

“Here’s your late pass.” said the woman, handing Peter a bright pink slip of paper. He took it. It reminded Peter of Morgan and her affinity to the color pink. 

“I’ll be back to pick you up later, kid.” said Happy as he finished signing the page. 

“Okay, see you Happy.”

“See you, kid.” 

Peter watched as the man left before he went further into the school. He showed up to his first class of the day ten minutes late handing the bright pink pass to the teacher. That wasn’t too bad, he thought. At least it was still first period. He sat down at his desk. Ned wasn’t in this class and it bummed him out a little. He wished he could see his best friend again, make sure he was okay. 

The class went by slowly as the teacher prattled on reviewing imaginary numbers. Then there was a worksheet. Peter finished it easily. 

Second and third period went by just as slowly and it was finally fourth period. Ned was in this class. He sat down in his usual spot and waited for the other boy. Peter was beyond relieved when his best friend walked through the door and his face broke into a huge smile. Ned noticed him and smiled back. He stood up out of his chair and met his friend halfway before they hugged tightly. 

“Hey, man!” was Ned’s first words to him.

“Hey!” replied Peter letting go. They did their elaborate secret handshake and sat down at their lab table. 

They had five minutes before class began and talked the whole time. 

“Can you believe it? Five years!”

Peter nodded. 

“I know. It’s so crazy. Mr. Stark has a daughter now. Her name’s Morgan.”   
“Woah, you come back and suddenly have a little sister. That’s gotta be strange.”

“She’s not really my sister Ned. Mr. Stark isn’t my dad. I just live there.” 

“ _You live there?_ At the _Avenger’s compound_?” he whisper shouted. 

“No, it’s a cabin by a lake upstate.” Peter shook his head. 

“That’s still so cool. You, living with _the_ Tony Stark.” he gushed. 

“Yeah, well...” 

“Wait, where’s May? She… came back, right?”

“What? Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah, she’s fine. She never left.”

Ned let out a sigh of relief.

  
“Wait, then why are you living with Mr. Stark?”

Peter paused.

“Is it Avenger’s stuff? I bet it’s Avenger’s stuff.” 

“It’s not Avenger’s stuff.” Peter said without thinking. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” Peter replied, not elaborating.

Class began and they got to work on a new chemistry experiment, Peter pouring the chemicals and Ned taking notes. 

“Anyways, how come you haven’t been answering my texts? Did you get a new phone?” asked Peter, turning on the bunsen burner. 

“Oh, no. I’ve just been busy talking to Betty, didn’t check my notifications.”

  
Peter frowned. Ned had been ignoring his notifications. And Peter had sent multiple texts. Had he just been swiping them away? He shook his head. 

“Betty? As in Betty Brant?” he asked. Ned was quick to reply. 

“Yeah! She’s great. She’s super smart. And she’s funny, not to mention really pretty.”

Peter didn’t think Betty would be Ned’s type but he guessed he didn’t really know what Ned’s type was. He hadn’t ever noticed Ned taking an interest in dating. He’d always been busy with school or hanging out with Peter. He hoped he wasn’t holding his friend back. 

“She hasn’t seen all the Star Wars movies but that’s something we can do together.” Continued the other teen. 

“That’s great Ned.”

Ned beamed.

“So, where’ve you been, Pete? You were gone for like a week.”

“I’ve been at the cabin?”

“But you missed school.”

Peter shrugged. 

“Not like we aren’t just reviewing things.” 

Ned nodded thoughtfully. 

“What’d you do at the cabin? What’s Morgan- is that her name? What’s she like?”

  
Peter stopped for a second. He remembered her ignoring him, the glares, the punch to the chest on the way here. Then he made up his mind.

“She’s great.” he lied. “Yeah, we get along pretty well.”

“Do you play dolls with her?” Ned snickered. 

“No.”

“Oh.” Ned’s smile remained on his face like he was just humoring him. Peter raised an eyebrow at him.

“Did you write down the answer for number four?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Number four.” Ned picked up his pencil again and wrote down some formulas. 

The day continued on and lunch came around. Peter got his school lunch of chicken nuggets, peaches and milk on a plastic tray and sat down at the table he always sat at. MJ was sat a couple of chairs down, but looked up from her book when he put his tray on the table. 

“Nerds.” she greeted.

Ned had joined them sitting across the table from him. 

“Hey, MJ.” replied Ned.

  
“Hey.” said Peter.

She went back to her book with a small smile. It seemed like she was happy to see them again. 

“So, tell me about it, Peter! What’s it like living with the Starks? I bet it’s amazing!”

“Well-” Peter began to eat. 

“It’s alright. I mean, they kinda forget I’m there sometimes but I get it. I was gone for five years.” 

Ned nodded sympathetically as he also ate his lunch.

“But, Mr. Stark-” 

His spidey senses alerted him and a hand smacked the back of his head. 

“Penis, you’re still talking about Stark? You realize he wouldn’t even look at you, let alone take you as an intern, right? You’re too stupid, not to mention how you’re a ticking death bomb.” 

Peter turned to glare at Flash as he tormented him.

“Glad to see you two idiots are back too, would have missed not getting to knock you around. Though, I guess I could just find a new kid. But that wouldn’t have been as fun.” he smirked. 

“Leave us alone.” scowled Peter. 

“Hmm. No, I don’t think I will.” he took a seat, next to Peter. 

“So, the blip, huh?” Peter wondered if Flash was lonely and the only way he knew how to converse was to lash out.

“Bet Tony Stark was involved. And Spider-Man too. Didn’t you say you knew Spider-Man, Parker?”

He taunted. Peter questioned where this was going but nodded anyways.

Flash snorted.

“Yeah, right. And how do you know him? From your fake internship?”

Peter turned away not bothering to answer. Flash stood up. 

“That’s what I thought. Spider-Man would rather die, than hang out with you. I know I would.” He said.

“Better come up with a better lie, Penis. Maybe then people would believe you.” he laughed walking away. 

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Man, I hate that guy.” said Ned watching the bully walk away.

“You’re telling me.”

“I don’t see why you don’t ever beat the guy up. Put him in his place a little. Show him who’s boss, ya know?”

  
“You know why I can’t do that, Ned.”

Ned sighed and they ate the rest of their lunch in peace.

The rest of the day went by quickly and soon enough, Happy was parked out front. Peter made his way to the car after a goodbye to Ned. 

“Hey, Happy.” Peter said, getting into his seat in the car. 

“Hey, Pete.” replied the man.

Morgan was there too. 

“Hi, Morgan.” 

Morgan ignored him, eating cheerios out of a plastic bag. Peter’s stomach growled, his fast metabolism had chewed through lunch by sixth period. But, there was no food in the car, there never was. Peter wondered if Happy had begun to allow food in his car or if Morgan was the only exception. He loathed asking Happy to stop for food for him, so he didn’t. Only suffered as the sweet smell of Morgan’s snack invaded the air. 

Maybe Morgan would share, he thought. But the idea was immediately dismissed. That was Morgan’s food and besides, he doubted the answer would be yes after the behavior she’d been showing him since he got back. He just hoped there was food at the house.


	5. My Only Sunshine

They finally got home and Peter’s stomach was growling and cramping. He used to grab a sandwich at Mr. Delmar’s back when he lived with May before catching the subway or he was fine until they got to the compound since it wasn’t too far from the school. But the cabin was way further. 

They all got out of the car and as Happy pulled Morgan out of her carseat, he made a beeline for the kitchen. He reached in the cupboards looking for something to eat. There were loads of Morgan’s snacks, things like strawberry poptarts, fruit gummies with Princesses on the box and trix yogurts. Things a five year old would eat. But nothing Peter liked. He sighed before taking a pack of gummies and a yogurt. It was a small snack but it would have to hold him until dinner time. 

He was eating when Morgan came into the room. She squinted her eyes and her mouth turned into a firm line when she saw he had her snacks. 

“Those are _my_ snacks.” 

Peter suddenly wished he had the courage to tell her off, but he didn’t want to ruin his attempt at blooming a friendship between them. He sighed again before offering her a fruit snack from the pouch he’d been eating. 

“I don’t want them. Not after you put your hands on them. That’s nasty.” she complained. He shrugged but didn’t comment. 

“I’m gonna tell Daddy on you.” she threatened. Peter frowned. What had he done?

“Why?” 

“Because you’re eating my snacks.” she replied, crossing her arms. 

“There are no other snacks.” he said in disbelief. 

“Then I guess you’ll be hungry.” she glared. 

“Fine, do it. Tell him.”

Peter was pissed now. He wasn’t going to be pushed around by a five year old.

“ _Daddy_!” she screeched. 

Tony burst into the room. 

“What? What’s going on?”  
Her bottom lip trembled and Peter looked on in shock. 

“Petey’s being a meanie.”

Peter’s jaw dropped. 

“What? No, I wasn’t!” 

Tony picked her up and set her on his hip. He looked at Peter with an unimpressed look on his face. Morgan put her head on his shoulder looking pitiful. She put her thumbnail in her mouth.

“Pete, what’s going on?”

“Nothing! I swear, I was just eating these fruit snacks when she came in. She said they were hers so I offered them back but she didn’t want them. Then she called you. I didn’t do anything.” 

“They are hers.” replied Mr. Stark. 

“What?” Peter couldn’t believe his ears. 

“The snacks are hers. I don’t know why you would want them, there’s plenty of food in the fridge if you were hungry.”

“There’s nothing I like in there.” he argued weakly. 

“I can’t please everyone, Pete.”

Peter just looked at him. Tony turned his attention to the little girl in his arms.

  
“You want fruit snacks, little miss?” 

She nodded into his shoulder and Tony made his way to the shelf where they were kept. He gave her a package after opening it for her. They left the kitchen and set up a movie in the living room. The opening track of Moana started to play. 

Peter was angry. Mr. Stark had sided with Morgan. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He wasn’t hungry anymore and the gummy in his mouth tasted ugly and sour now. He threw out the rest and put the untouched yogurt back in the fridge and put his spoon away. 

He left the kitchen, passing the two in the living room just as the first song began to play. He slammed his bedroom door, but no one came running or even reprimanded him. He threw himself on the bed after tossing off his shoes, the bed still covered in the ugly floral sheets but added to it was his favorite dark blue fleece blanket. He’d had the same one since he was very small. In fact, when he’d been dropped off at his aunt and uncle's house for the first time after his parents died, it’d been one of the things he’d been carrying. 

He wrapped himself up in it and pulled out his phone. No notifications from Ned. He shot the boy a text. 

‘Hey’

_Seen._

‘Wyd’

 _Seen._ No response. 

So, now Ned was intentionally ignoring him. He put down his phone feeling lonely and curled up under his warm blanket drawing comfort from it. He could still hear Moana coming from downstairs. He fell asleep to the sound of You’re Welcome, playing in the background.

He had a dreamless sleep and when he woke up again, it was dark out. The smell of food wafted in from under the door and his mouth watered. He stood up and stretched, his blanket falling off his shoulders and his bones cracking. Then, he left the room. 

When he reached downstairs, he noticed everyone was sitting at the table eating dinner. He froze in the doorway to the dining room. Why hadn’t anyone come to get him? Tony looked up and their eyes met.

“Peter! Hey kid, sit down, we were just finishing up here. Didn’t want to wake you up.” 

Peter nodded and sat at the table. Tony sat at the head of the table, with Morgan to his right and Pepper to his left. The table was somewhat large so they had crowded at the end of it leaving Peter at the other end by himself. 

They had at least set out a spot for him. He reached for the food but no one seemed to notice his struggle so he had to stand up to get it himself. 

“How was school?” asked Pepper, and Peter looked up from where he was serving himself the last of the green beans. This had happened all week. Pepper and Tony always seemed to forget he was here and so they only made enough for the three of them leaving Peter with the scraps. They always seemed apologetic about it but nothing ever changed. 

He went to answer her question but noticed she was talking to Morgan. He shut his mouth and returned the empty bowl to the middle of the table before he began to eat quietly.

“It was so good, Mommy. Tyler and me played out in the jungle gym during recess and then me and the whole class had the biggest game of freeze tag _ever_!” She said, “Then, we had lunch and nap time, but I didn’t sleep cuz I wasn't tired.” She spoke matter of factly. Morgan picked at her green beans. 

“Mommy, green beans are yucky.” 

Peter ate his food in silence. Savoring every last bite, including the green beans even if he wasn’t the biggest fan of vegetables himself. 

“Honey, it’s not nice to say the food is yucky. Your father and I worked really hard on this meal.” Pepper spoke then took a bite of her seared steak and mushrooms. 

Morgan humphed and pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“What if I did this?” said Tony, scooping some of the vegetables on his fork and then flying it through the air like a tiny plane. 

“I’m not a baby, Daddy.” Morgan giggled at his antics. 

“I beg to differ, little miss. You’re my baby.” Morgan smiled, then took the fork and ate the green beans as Tony looked on proudly yet smug. Peter tore his eyes back to his plate and felt a pang of loneliness in his chest.

He’d finished his food before everyone else since there wasn’t very much of it. Tony had forgotten about his high metabolism and now he was still a little hungry. He picked up his plate and cup, walking them to the kitchen. 

On his way to the sink, he tripped over his own foot, just managing to catch his balance. He’d managed to keep a grip on his plate but his cup crashed to the ground spilling milk and glass all over the tile floor. Peter stood still for a moment in shock, then stepped over the glass to put his plate in the sink. He heard chairs scooting out from under the table and hurried footsteps as people rushed into the room.

“What happened?” asked Tony, looking at the mess. 

“I tripped and dropped a cup. I’m sorry.” Peter told him sheepishly. Morgan suddenly made grabby hands to her dad and he picked her up. 

“It’s fine, just clean it up. There’s paper towels on the counter and a broom over there.” he said pointing to a corner of the room. 

“Make sure you don’t cut yourself.” he threw over his shoulder as they all went back into the dining room. 

Peter’s chest ached as he bent to pick up the bigger chunks of glass with his fingers. Tony had been really cold with him just then. It was just like when they’d first met. Like the year they’d spent together had never happened, all the lab days and the phone calls had just disappeared. 

Peter cleaned up the mess, throwing away the sopping wet towels and emptying the dustpan in the trash. Then, after washing his dish, knife and fork, went straight back to his room ignoring the laughter of the happy family. 

Peter took the time to shower and then sit at the tiny desk in his room to start his homework. After a few hours, the Starks were getting ready for bed. He closed the book he’d been reading on his bed for English and went to brush his teeth. Morgan was in the bathroom on a step stool, her father standing behind her as she brushed her teeth by herself. Peter could smell the strawberry flavored toothpaste from the hallway as he waited for them to finish. Morgan spit in the sink, rinsing her mouth of the foam. Then smiled at her daddy who inspected her bright tiny teeth with satisfaction. 

“You’re doing really well, Maguna. Soon, I won’t even have to watch you.” 

She beamed then jumped off the stool, taking her Daddy’s hand and leading her to her bedroom.

“Read me a story, Daddy!” she laughed. 

“Okay, Baby, one story then it’s off to bed.” 

Morgan hummed and jumped on her bed crawling under the covers. Tony switched on a little night light that made stars burst onto the walls and began to read a children’s book to her.

Peter went into the bathroom and brushed his teeth using the only toothpaste available- morgan’s children’s strawberry paste. He squeezed the sparkly paste onto his toothbrush and set to work brushing his teeth. It tasted terrible and the sickly sweet taste made him gag, but there was no other toothpaste so he quickly finished and rinsed his mouth, the sweetness staying but the sour of the strawberry washing away. 

He walked back to his room and turned off the lights, climbing into bed but leaving the door open just a crack. Light shone from the dimmed sconces on the walls of the hallway into his room and in the quiet, he could hear Tony’s voice flood in from across the hall. He was singing Morgan a lullaby.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine-” he sang softly.

Peter rolled onto his back. 

“You make me happy, when skies are grey.” Morgan giggled and Peter imagined Tony had touched her nose fondly. 

“You never know dear, how much I love you-” Peter closed his eyes.

“So, please don’t take my sunshine away.”

There was shifting on Morgan’s part as she got more comfortable.

“Sing it again, Daddy.”

There was a soft sigh and a pause, and Peter shifted onto his other side, cuddling his navy blanket close. 

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine-” the father began again. 

By the end of the song, Peter was almost asleep and Tony was closing Morgan’s door. He went into his own room, without a goodnight to the teen, closing the door behind him. 

Peter fell asleep feeling lonely.

* * *

_He was running. Going faster than ever before holding the infinity gauntlet in his arms. Behind him, hordes of aliens were following and he tried to run faster. But they were too quick and they trampled him into the ground. He curled around the glove, protecting his head with his other hand. This was too much and suddenly the warehouse came crashing down on him again. He couldn’t breath. The dust cleared. Where was the gauntlet? Tony would be so disappointed in him. More than disappointed, angry was more like it._

_“You’re damn right I’m angry.” said Tony squatting down to his level where he was under the rubble._

_“You could have gotten that damn gauntlet, Peter, why did you let it go? No, wait don’t tell me. You couldn’t handle it could you? That’s why you’re under here, kid. That’s why no one likes you. You aren’t good enough. That's why Ned’s not talking to you. That’s why May left you. That's why Pepper ignores you and Morgan beats on you. You deserve it. That’s why I don't love you, Peter.” It made sense, thought Peter._

_“I’ll be better, Mr. Stark, please help me.” he began to cry. “I need help. I can’t breathe.”_

_“No, Pete, you’ve got to get yourself out of this one. You buried yourself here. I can’t help you.” he began to walk away and Peter cried harder._

_“No, please! Help me!” he struggled against the rubble but nothing moved but a couple of pebbles._

_Tony was getting farther and farther away. Peter reached out his hand toward the man, tears rushing down his face._

_“Help me!” he struggled some more but nothing happened. “Please, Mr. Stark!” But Tony kept walking._

_“Mr. Stark!” he sobbed. He felt pressure on his lower half but suddenly it was gone and warmth spread everywhere. He ignored it in favor of trying to push the rubble off of him. He cried when it didn’t move and the rocks scratched up his hands instead. Tony watched from a distance, his hands over his chest._

_“Mr. Stark.” Peter cried. He made grabby hands at him like Morgan did when she wanted to be picked up but the man did not budge._

_Peter put his arms down and wept into his hands, the salt of his tears seeping into the cuts and stinging._

_Suddenly, Morgan was standing in front of him. He looked up at her and she took his cheeks in her tiny hands and squeezed._

_“Petey, I hate you.” she said. “And I wish you were dead.”_

_She squeezed with more power than a five year old could possibly possess and his head exploded with a sickening pop. Like a balloon full of blood._

He woke up with a scream, sitting up in bed. He was panting when Tony burst into the room. 

“Kid? Are you okay? Where’s the danger?” The man waving around his new prosthetic arm shining with a repulsor ready to shoot at anything that moved. Peter watched with wide eyes before promptly bursting into tears. 

Tony looked shocked, before realizing there was no danger. He made his way to the bed. 

“Hey, hey, hey. What’s wrong, kid?”

The boy had his knees pulled up to his chest and was crying hard into his hands. 

“Peter-” Tony seemed lost and reached over to rub the boys back like he did when Morgan cried. 

“Pete, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong. Are you hurt?”

Peter shook his head. He uncurled his legs and leaned sideways in the direction of Tony who caught him easily. He curled his fingers into Tony’s shirt and hugged his middle. Tony hugged him back, one arm around his back and the other cradling his head to his chest. Peter’s cries tapered off into sniffles and Tony’s hand rubbed up and down his back when he noticed he had touched something wet. He looked down and noticed the bottom half of Peter’s sleep shirt was wet and now that he noticed it, he smelled urine. 

“Fuck.” he swore softly. He wasn’t equipped to handle this. “Pete… did you wet the bed?”

Peter stiffened in his hold before he started to sob again. That was all the conformation Tony needed.

Peter was mortified and cried embarrassed tears into what used to be his mentor’s shirt. He wanted to curl up and die in a hole. He’d never been so embarrassed before in his life. His grip slackened when he noticed Tony was trying to pull away. He probably thought Peter was gross and disgusting. He was pushing him away, he’d have to leave the house, no one could stand him anyway.

“Peter, go get washed up, I’ll take care of the sheets.”

Peter hiccuped as he got out of the bed to do as he was told, his clothes sticking to him uncomfortably. 

“Hey kid, it’s okay, it was an accident. Has this happened before?” Tony asked, stripping the bed as Peter grabbed new pajamas. 

“Yes.” he replied waterily. Tony nodded thoughtfully and Peter left to take a shower. He had to use that damn _Watermelon Blast_ soap again. Peter cried softly in the shower. He was afraid to face Tony again. He’d messed up. He’d surely get kicked out of the house now. He finally got out, drying himself off and putting on the new pajamas. He picked up the wet ones and brought them back to his room. Tony had disappeared and there were new sheets on his bed. This time they were plain grey. Tony walked in behind him, holding Peter’s navy blanket in his hands. 

“This one’s okay, it doesn’t need a wash.” he said, handing it over. Peter was grateful and climbed back into bed. The sheets were very soft but the duvet had to be cleaned so his navy blanket was the only thing on the bed. He cuddled it, breathing in the scent of laundry detergent from when it had been washed after yesterday’s accident. Tony sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his back.   
“Hey, kiddo. If this happens again, you can come to me, you know that right?” 

Peter looked away. 

“Morgan does it all the time, I’m used to it, don't worry.”

Peter most definitely would never do that but didn’t say anything. Tony sighed and rubbed his back one last time before standing. 

“Night, kid.” Tony said before closing the door and plunging the room into complete darkness. 

Peter felt his eyes widen as they adjusted to the dark. He got out of the bed and went to his desk, rummaging around in his drawer before he found what he was looking for. 

He plugged in the small night light into the wall socket. It definitely wasn’t as fancy as Morgan’s but it did the job. He squinted at the light and went back to lay down. He felt tired but not tired enough to sleep. He laid there quietly for a while, before he began chewing the end of his finger nail. He’d been a thumbsucker as a child but it had stopped when he’d turned seven. He wondered if a habit like that could come back. He hoped not. Peter’s breathing became deeper as he chewed his thumb nail and soon, he was asleep. 


	6. I'm Drowning

Peter woke up to his alarm ringing shrilly in his room. He reached over and turned it off, content to lay there for a second before he had to get up. He remembered the night before and groaned. He’d had a complete breakdown in front of Mr. Stark _and_ he’d wet his pants. He was sure that not even Morgan had accidents like that anymore. Not that he’d seen anyway. 

He got out of bed and got dressed for the day, pulling on a long sleeved plaid button down and a baby blue sweater on top. This was his favorite outfit. He put on grey jeans and tossed on some old Nikes he had laying around before leaving the room to brush his teeth. He gagged on the too strong strawberry toothpaste like always and did his business on the toilet before washing his hands and going down to the kitchen. 

There he saw Morgan, eating her daily bowl of FrootLoops. He sighed in resignation and poured himself a bowl before sitting in his usual spot across from her. They ate in silence, Mr. Stark nowhere to be found.

“Petey? Can you get me some water?” asked Morgan and Peter looks up wondering if she wanted to reconcile with him or if he was just the only person in the room to ask and she was doing it purely out of convenience. He finishes chewing then swallows before he replies.

“Sure, Mo.” 

He stands up and fetches a glass for himself and a little yellow plastic cup for her. He fills them both with water from the tap and turns around. He walks to the table setting the cups down carefully, handing the little plastic one to the girl. 

He goes to sit down and Morgan reaches for his glass, instead. Peter frowns a little confused and doesn’t let her take it but she manages to grab it before he can and drinks from it before setting it down on the table and pushing the little yellow cup towards him. It would have been kinda funny if he was honest. But he's too tired for this and it's frustrating instead. 

“Mo, that was my drink.” 

She shrugs before taking another loud sip. 

He sighs but lets it go. They resume eating their breakfast when Morgan takes another sip of what used to be his water and sets it on the edge of the table. As she lifts the spoon up to her mouth, her arm bumps the cup sending it crashing to the ground before either of them can process it. They look at each other for a second before they hear footsteps. Morgan immediately takes the yellow plastic cup, pretending she had it all along when Tony walks in through the door. They both look up at him from their seats at the table, frozen. Morgan’s hands are preoccupied with the plastic cup and Peter has one hand holding his spoon in the air the other resting on the table.

“What just happened?” askes Tony looking between the two of them.

They speak at the same time, unfreezing.

“Morgan bumped it-”

“Peter did it.”

Peter turns to Morgan stunned. 

Tony rubs his eyes with his hands. 

“Pete, this is your second cup in two days. I’m restricting you to plastic. End of discussion.”

Tony says tiredly. Peter’s mouth opens in shock. 

“ _Plastic_? I’m sixteen!” 

“ _End_. Of discussion.” he says and leaves the room, annoyed. Morgan just sips from her plastic cup, smiling behind it. She likes it when Peter gets in trouble. 

* * *

The ride to school is silent. Morgan plays some game on her StarkPad and Peter glares out the window. Plastic. Like a little kid, he can’t believe it. And it was all Morgan’s fault. Ever since they met she’d been out to get him and he has no idea why. He huffs and crosses his arms. Morgan looks up for a second when he shifts but immediately goes back to her game. They drop her off at her school leaving Peter in the car but Happy is back within a few minutes. Peter stays silent and Happy is glad for it. 

He drops Peter off and drives away. The teen makes his way through his classes methodically, his mood improving every minute of the day. By lunchtime, he feels much better and is only a little annoyed about the whole plastic thing. 

“Hey, Pete!” says Ned. 

Sitting beside him is Betty Brant and Peter’s mood dampens a little. Today was a rotten day. At least it couldn’t get any worse. Still, he slaps a smile on his face and sits across from the two in his usual spot. 

“Hey, guys.” 

“How’s it going?” asks Ned, wrapping his arm around Betty.

Peter looks down at his food, scooping up some spaghetti.

“Good, what about you guys?”

Peter puts the spaghetti in his mouth and chews. 

“Us? We’re great!” Ned says. Betty smiles at him. 

“Peter, how’s it been with the Starks?” Betty asks.

Peter looks at Ned who looks at him apologetically. 

He shrugs and looks back to his plate twirling more pasta onto his spork. 

“It’s been alright.” he says before scooping it into his mouth. 

“That’s so vague! Tell us more!” she insists. 

Peter shifts uncomfortably, searching his mind for anything positive he can tell them about the experience so far. He just shrugs, giving up on finding anything. They seem to get that he doesn’t want to talk about it and change the subject. 

“Well, Ned and I are going steady now!” Betty gushes. 

Peter looks shocked for a second before he blinks. He smiles. 

“That’s great, guys. I’m happy for you.” 

Peter finishes his spaghetti and drinks his milk from the carton as they talk about their relationship and the dates they’ve already gone on. 

“And I showed her the Star Wars movies! We haven’t finished them yet, but we’re getting there.”

Peter’s heart clenches and the smile on his face becomes forced. Star Wars was _their_ thing. “That’s cool.” 

They head to class after lunch and the day continues.

By seventh period, Peter’s head starts to ache and by the time school ends its pounding. He says goodbye to Ned and Betty in front of the school. It looked like Betty was gonna be around a lot more often. He walks to Happy’s car and gets in. Morgan is there in her seat.  
“Hey, kid.” greets Happy. 

“Hi, Happy. Hi, Morgan.” 

Morgan looks out her window ignoring him. He puts his backpack down by his feet and looks out his own window as Happy pulls out of the school. His head is killing him and he settles down, leaning against his door. Soon enough, he’d fallen asleep, lulled by the movement of the car. 

_He’s running again. And the aliens are behind him. Suddenly, the sight of Pepper in the distance stops him in his tracks._

_“Ms. Potts! You have to run! They’re coming!” Peter’s dressed in his civilian clothes, he feels useless. She turns around, tears on her face. “Peter. It’s Tony.”_

_And the world stops. The aliens are gone._

_“He’s dead.” Peter feels his heart stop._

_“He’s dead because of you.” Peter’s eyes widened._

_“You weren’t there when he needed you. And now he’s dead and Morgan, she doesn’t have a father.” she cries._

_Peter is suddenly falling, he’s being dropped in the Hudson. His head goes under and there's warmth and water everywhere. He’s drowning. He can see Morgan standing above the water, holding her dad’s hand._ _  
_ _“Petey’s dying Daddy.”_

_“Is he?” are his only words. The man walks away and Morgan bends down her face clear through the water and her voice even clearer._

_“Good.” she says._

“Happy! Peter’s peeing!” Morgan called from her car seat. 

“ _What_?” exclaimed the man.

Peter gasped awake. He looked around. He was in Happy’s car. Morgan was watching him with curiosity. She tilted her head as Happy slowed to a stop, pulling over. 

“Do you always pee when you dream?” she asked curiously. 

Peter’s eyes widened and he realized his lap felt wet, he looked down, dreading what he would see. He was drenched from the waist down. He tried to pull his sweater down and over the patch, trying to hide it from her but it was no use, there wasn’t enough fabric. Happy was unbuckling his seat belt and Peter noticed they were on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. A car whooshed past his window and tears welled up in his eyes. 

“Well? _Do you_?” Morgan insisted. Happy was making his way to Peter’s side and Peter ignored her question in favor of gulping. He was in so much trouble right now. 

Happy wrenched the door open and Peter’s eyes widened. 

“Shit.” Happy said taking in the mess. He ran a hand over his face. 

Morgan would have giggled at the curse word if the atmosphere wasn’t so tense. She too, watched Happy with wide eyes. 

“You couldn’t have told me you needed to go? Or better yet, gone before we left?” Happy asked exasperated. 

“I- I-” the teen started. 

“Like shit, kid, the _upholstery_. You’re lucky this is leather and not cheap fabric.”

Peter’s face was pinched as he nodded. 

Happy sighed. 

“Fuck,” Happy looked towards the street. 

“I don’t have any clothes here.” The man said to himself. 

Peter looked at his hands in his lap and tried his hardest not to cry.

“I could- I could walk.” Peter choked out. 

“No kid, you don’t even know where you are. Besides, Tony would kill me if I let you walk.” Happy rubbed his hand down his face again. Another car whooshed past. 

“Fuck,” he said again. 

He sighed and closed the door. He went around the car as the children watched and sat in the driver’s seat putting on his seat belt.

“Look, kid, next time, tell me if you need to go. I’ll stop. This shit doesn’t even happen to Morgan anymore.” Happy grimaced, feeling guilty about his last words. To Peter, it had just confirmed what he’d been thinking about in his bed that morning. 

Peter felt his eyes water again, but this time the tears fell. He looked out the window away from Morgan’s gaze as the car pulled back onto the road. The car was quiet except for Peter’s sniffles. His chest heaved as he tried to keep the sobs in. It was too much, he couldn’t handle the embarrassment of wetting his pants in front of everyone and the scolding at once, plus how rotten his day had already been. The reprimanding was the straw that broke the camel's back as it were. 

Morgan was watching him with interest. She suddenly had a morbid curiosity. What would happen if she pinched Peter right now? Would this be what her Daddy called _an experiment_? 

She reached over from her place in her car seat and pinched his arm hard, squeezing his flesh with her tiny fingers. The reaction was immediate. He pulled his arm away from her close to his body.

“Owww” he cried, stuttering. Now, he was sobbing. How curious. He covered his face with his hands and leaned forward, his head resting on the passenger seat. 

“Peter, please.” Happy said from the front, agitated. Peter’s jaw snapped shut audibly but he was still crying. His shoulders shaking and his chest heaving with the effort of containing everything inside. 

Morgan reached over and pinched him again. He scooted as close to the car door as possible where she couldn’t reach. 

“Mo, stop.” he whined which turned into a hiccup.

“Morgan.” Happy warned, he couldn’t see whatever she was doing, but whatever it was- Peter didn't like it and he put a stop to it. She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest. But her experiment had been a success, even if it was stopped by Happy. She found something she could do to Peter that he didn’t like, something she could get away with. 

By the time they’d reached the house Peter’s tears had dried on his face. It was blotchy and he sniffled, leaning against the car door as far from Morgan as possible. She’d been the meanest she’d ever been with him on the way home and any hope he’d had of blooming a friendship with her had vanished as soon as she put her hands on him. He felt a little guilty, like he’d given up too soon. 

Tony was there meeting them in the driveway and he opened Peter’s door for him. Happy took Morgan out of her seat on the other side of the car. Tony looked shocked as he took in Peter’s state. Peter took off his own seatbelt and got out of the car, looking at the ground, embarrassed. Tony moved to give him room as he got out of the car and Happy came around holding Morgan’s hand. 

“There were a few… issues on the way here.” Happy said. 

“No shit, Hap. I can see that.” replied the billionaire. 

“What happened?”

No one said anything and Tony sighed. 

“Peter?”

“I had a bad dream.”

“Oh, bud.” Tony rubbed his arm comfortingly. Morgan let go of Happy’s hand as soon as she saw this and clung to her Daddy’s leg.

“Daddy-” Morgan wracked her brain, trying to come up with something that would bring the attention on her again or at least, make Peter uncomfortable.

“Daddy, Petey’s all wet.”   
Her plan worked and Peter hid his face in his hands. 

“I know, Mo. Let's get you inside, Pete.” The man put his hand on Peter’s back and led him inside, picking up Morgan and placing her on his hip on the opposite side. Peter rubbed his face with his sleeves, trusting Tony to walk him inside. 

They made it in the cabin with no issues, Happy following them in with the backpacks. 

“Shit, what’s in this thing? Bricks?” Happy complained, setting Peter’s bag on the dining room table. 

“Don’t say ‘shit’ in front of the kids, Hap. You know Morgan’s a copycat.”

“Yeah, yeah.” he grumbled. 

“Pete, you go take a shower. We’ll wait right here.”

Peter nodded and everyone watched him go upstairs. 

He sniffled a little, his emotions on edge as he picked out a pair of pajamas and underwear from his dresser. He walked to the bathroom, his jeans almost dry by now. He got undressed and got into the shower, turning it hot just like he did every time he had an accident. 

He noticed Morgan’s soap and slid down until he was sitting in the tub, why hadn’t they bought Peter soap yet? Why was he forced to use children’s soap damn everyday? His thumbnail went into his mouth as the water poured down on him. Why didn’t they buy him things he could eat, why didn’t they make him enough food? Why, why, why. 

Soon, he was biting the tip of his thumb without realizing. 

Why was everyone ignoring him? Why did May abandon him? A tear ran down his cheek and was washed away after it fell off his chin. Why was everyone letting Morgan get away with tormenting him? Why didn’t anyone _care_? His thumb slipped into his mouth and rested on his tongue before old habits kicked in and he was sucking soothingly. He sat for a moment before he realized what he was doing and ripped his hand out of his mouth. So much for the habit not coming back. 

He stood up and scrubbed himself with the sweet smelling soap and rinsed off. Getting out, he pulled the towel off the counter from under his clothes and dried himself. He put on the fresh clothing and opened the door, old clothes in hand. He put his towel away and carried his old clothes downstairs to the kitchen where he put them in a plastic bag to be washed later. He tied the bag and put it in his hamper back upstairs in the guest bedroom where he’d been staying. 

Peter was beyond exhausted, his headache was back in full force and he threw himself on the bed pulling his blanket over his head. There was a knock at the door and it swung open. Peter peeled the blanket off. It was Morgan. The last person he wanted to see.  
“Daddy says you have to come downstairs.” she said vaguely. 

Peter groaned before swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Morgan watched until he reached the door then bolted back down stairs with the boy following tiredly. 

Morgan was sitting in front of the TV when he reached downstairs and she pointed towards the kitchen. Peter went into the kitchen to find Tony at the breakfast table, there was a bag at his feet. He sat down next to him. 

“Peter,” he addressed him. 

“We need to talk.” 

Peter just looked at him in anticipation. 

“The bedwetting is out of control. You said you did it before last night and now this? Pete, I’m starting to think you need some help. So, I brought you these.” 

Peter tensed. He really really hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was, but what else could it be?

Tony pulled the bag from under his feet and set it on the table. In the plastic bag was a package. A package of _fucking diapers_. 

“No! N- no. There’s no way. There’s no way I’m wearing those.” Peter shook his head, his hands were shaking. 

“Pete-”

“No. Nuh-uh. No.” he was shaking his head. 

“Kid-”

“I can’t Mr. Stark. You can’t make me-” Peter felt his eyes well up for the millionth time that day. 

“Peter!” Peter stopped, his wide teary eyes tearing away from where he’d been staring at the package to the man. 

“It’s for your own good. There’s no way you can live like this. It’s either the Pull-Ups or you go to the doctors and Bruce checks you out. What’s it gonna be?” 

Peter was torn with indecision. He’d rather die than get checked out by his favorite scientist about his bedwetting but he’d also rather die than wear a diaper. 

“Please, Mr. Stark-” he pleaded a tear rolled out but Mr. Stark did not budge. 

“What’s it gonna be, Peter?” 

“I- I-” 

Mr. Stark waited patiently. 

“Daddy!” called Morgan from the other room.

“Hold on a second, Morg! What’s it gonna be, Pete?” 

The boy looked at the package and sniffed. 

“Um. The um. Those.” he said. 

“I’m proud of you, kid. That was a hard decision to make.” he said sympathetically. 

Peter looked down at his lap. 

“Here, take them upstairs. I’ve gotta go check on Morgan.” he said, leaving the room.

This was it. Peter thought. This easily made one of the top worst experiences of his life. He’d never felt so humiliated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so worried it's too much. Is it too fast? What do you think?


	7. You Be the Baby and I be the Mommy. Okay?

Peter took the package discreetly to his room and set it on his bed. He’d probably never been so tired and humiliated in his life. His face hurt from crying so much that day. He opened the package and stared at the fluffy diapers in the pack. They were plain grey. He was grateful they at least didn’t have any sort of pattern or cartoon on them, that would be even more embarrassing. He took one out. _How would Mr. Stark know if he was wearing one or not?_ He thought. Really, there was no way he’d know. So, Peter put the package in his closet, closed the door and went to brush his teeth, he came back and laid down in his bed after turning off the lights. The night light turned on automatically in the dark.

His head had never stopped hurting and he buried his face in his blanket. Sometime while he was at school, someone had put the duvet back on the bed and he was currently lying on top of it. He got under the sheets, putting his blanket under his head, content to feel the fleece under his cheek. He didn’t even realize he fell asleep. 

_He was talking with Mr. Stark. They were sitting on stools in his lab back at the tower just like old times_. 

_“Anyway, Pete,_ _the nanobites-”_

_He was cut off when a blur jumped in his lap._

_“Morgan?” said Peter, surprised._

_What was she doing at the tower? She’d never even been there before. This was their space._

_“Hey, hey, Morg!” exclaimed Tony happily to the little girl in his lap._

_Peter felt his mood dampen as Tony turned his attention away from him._

_“How are you doing, Baby?”_

_“I’m great, Daddy! What’s Petey doing here?”_

_They both turned to him and Peter felt himself shift uncomfortably._

_“Not sure, Maguna. Let’s go get some hot cocoa.” he said, beginning to stand._

_He set Morgan on her feet and took her hand, heading for the elevators. Peter stood up and followed. They were suddenly on the common floor and Tony was making hot chocolate by the stove._

_“Daddy,” she whispered loudly the way little kids do. Neither of them noticed when Peter walked in._

_“I don’t like Petey. I think we should kill him.”_

_“Kill him?” Tony whispered back._

_She nodded seriously. Peter’s breath caught in his chest._

_“I don’t know about that, Maguna.” Peter sighed in relief but it was short lived._

_“What if he hurt him? Just a little.” she said, pinching her fingers together._

_“He is hurting, look at him. We just have to pretend he isn’t there just a little longer for him to crack.” he told her. She smiled evilly._

_Peter walked forward into their line of sight, his face pinched with anger._

_“I heard everything you guys were talking about.” he told them._

_“If you wanted me gone, you could have just said so.”_

_“Pete, what are you talking about?” Tony asked innocently, taking a drink from his mug. He handed one to Morgan and she took a long drink._

_“Don’t act stupid. I know what you’re doing. You’re ignoring me on purpose.”_

_“Ignoring you? What gave you that impression?” asked his mentor._

_“Don’t pretend you don’t know!”_

_“Oh! You mean this?” he asked, a smile forming on his face, he set down his mug, walked over to Peter and pushed hard._

_Peter fell backwards into a pool. The water filling his lungs. Tony and Morgan cackled above the water and Peter surfaced gasping and coughing. They were in the tower’s swimming pool room now, the kitchen a distant memory. Peter thrashed in the water, he didn’t know how to swim. He’d been taught before, but it was a memory he couldn’t reach._

_“Help me!” he said between gasps._

_“Mmm. No, I don’t think I will.” the billionaire said, reminiscent of Flash’s words from the other day._

_“Daddy? Is Peter dying?”_ _  
_ _“He’s drowning, honey.”_

 _“What’s drowning?”_ _  
_ _Peter’s ears were full of water so he didn’t hear the explanation._

_“Shouldn’t you save him?” Morgan asked._

_Peter was managing to keep his head barely above the water, but he knew he should have drowned by now._

_“Why would I save him? I have you now, don’t I?”_

_Morgan smiled._

_“Yeah, Daddy, you do. I love you.”_

_Peter felt his head go under._

_“I love you.” he heard the muffled reply._

_Peter let go._

He woke up with a gasp and as expected his sheets were wet. He sat up and peeled them back. Mr. Stark was walking past his bedroom door when he heard the gasp. He turned around, opening the door further. Peter rushed to cover himself again and glanced at his phone on the nightstand, it was only 9:30 pm. 

“Pete? Everything okay?” 

Peter cringed. He knew he was in trouble now. He nodded shakily. 

“What’s going on?” He asked, walking in the room. 

Peter said nothing, keeping his head down. His eyes watered and felt angry with himself for crying so much lately. Why couldn’t he just keep it inside?  
Tony walked up to the bed and sat on the edge. He felt something wet and sighed. 

“Damn it, kid.” he said frustrated. 

“I told you you had two options. Wear the diapers or talk to Bruce. You said you’d wear them. What happened?”

Peter shrugged and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“Daddy?” whispered Morgan at the door.   
Tony sighed, having two kids was rough. 

“Yes, baby?”

“Can I have some water?”

“Hold on, sweetie. I’m talking to Peter. Go back to bed and I’ll bring you your water in a minute.”

Morgan ignored the last part. 

“Did Petey wet the bed?” she asked innocently. 

“Mo, go to bed.” 

Peter buried his face in his blanket, embarrassed. 

“He did, didn’t he?” she said teasingly, adding fuel to the fire.

“Morgan Stark!” Tony growled. 

Morgan rushed back to her room. 

Tony ran a hand down his face. 

“You have no idea how hard it is to take care of two kids.” he said to himself. Peter sniffled. 

“I can go, Mr. Stark. I’m sorry.” he mumbled. 

“And where would you go, Pete? No, you’re staying right here. Now go take a shower.” 

Peter nodded, removing the blanket from his face. He sniffled loudly and got out of bed. He got his clothes out and was just about to reach for a pair of boxers when he heard Mr. Stark open his closet. He froze and the man picked out the first pull up he found walking over to the boy and holding it out. He looked at Peter pointedly. Peter looked up at him waterily for a moment before he finally took the offered training pants. 

He set them on top of his pile and left the room. 

They were running out of _Watermelon Blast_ and Peter was grateful. Maybe he could go with the Starks on the next grocery run and pick out his own body wash and toothpaste. And even things he liked for snack. 

He got out of the shower and dried off, pulling on a new sleep shirt. He looked at the diaper sitting innocently on the counter before grabbing it and putting it on. He pulled on his pants as fast as possible so he didn’t have to look at it. He carried his clothes back to his room. Mr. Stark had pulled off all the sheets and was inspecting his blanket. 

“Looks good, kiddo.” he said, trading the wet clothes for said blanket. The man put the clothes in the pile before picking it up and walking out of the room with it, heading for the laundry. 

So, a crappy day had turned into a crappy night. He leaned against the bed deep in thought, raising his thumb to his mouth subconsciously. He sucked on it feeling immediately soothed. That was, until Morgan burst through the door. He ripped his thumb out of his mouth.

“Oooo. You’re a baby!” she teased. 

Peter felt his entire face burn red. 

“Baby, baby, baby!” she chanted, giggling.

Embarrassed tears rushed to his eyes. 

“You do it, too!” he said, enraged. 

“I do not!” she squawked. 

“I’ve seen you!” he lied. 

“No, you haven’t! I don’t because I’m not a baby anymore. Only babies suck their thumb and I’m five! You’re just a big baby!” she taunted.

“I am not!” 

“Are too.” 

“ _Shut up_!” 

Morgan gasped.

“ _Daddy_!” she called. 

Peter could not handle another scolding today. 

“No, Mo, _wait_! Wait. I- I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to tell you to shut up.”

Morgan looked at him, searchingly. She seemed satisfied. 

“You _are_ a baby.” she smiled.   
Peter looked at the ground. 

Tony suddenly appeared in the doorway with her, he looked between the two children.

“Uh. Did I miss something?”

“Petey sucks his thumb.” she tattled. 

Tony looked at Peter who immediately crumbled into tears. 

“Peter?” said Tony worriedly. Peter sank to the ground, crying into his knees. Morgan watched from the door. 

Tony rushed over and fell to his knees in front of the boy with a grunt. 

“Peter, hey, it’s okay.” 

“No, it’s _not_. She’s so _mean_ to me.”

“Who? Morgan?”

Peter nodded into his arms. 

“She’s five, Pete. What can she do?” 

Peter looked up. 

“She’s _mean_ to me.” he insisted, tears dripping down his cheeks.

Tony sighed and turned to Morgan beckoning her over. She waltzed over. 

“Morgan. Say you’re sorry for being mean to your brother.” 

Morgan had the decency to look chastised. 

“Sorry, Petey.” she said, her bottom lip stuck out. 

Peter didn’t say anything, looking in her brown eyes for sincerity. He found a glimmer and hope bloomed in his chest. 

“It’s fine.” he forgave after a minute. 

Peter was too kind, Morgan thought. And she was too good of an actress. 

“There we go!” Mr. Stark clapped. He brought both children in for a group hug. 

“My kids. Getting along.”

Warmth spread through Peter’s chest. _My kids_ , he’d said. Kids. As in more than one. Peter gripped Mr. Stark’s side tighter.

“Alright, time for bed.” Mr. Stark announced. 

Everyone let go and got off the floor. 

“Daddy can you read me a bedtime story? Pretty please?”

“Sure, Maguna, go pick one out. I’m gonna put Pete here, to bed.” he said. Morgan rushed out of the room. 

They put clean sheets on his bed and Peter climbed in, covering himself with his blanket and turning on his side. Tony tucked the blanket to his chin sitting on the side of the bed. 

“Goodnight, Spiderling.” he said, running his fingers through Peter’s curls. Peter bathed in the attention and love he’d felt for the first time since he’d gotten there. The night was looking up even if the day had been one of the worst of his life.

“Night, Mr. Stark.” he whispered. The man stood up and left the room leaving the door open just a crack like Peter always did. He walked across the hall to Morgan's room and Peter heard him open a book, the spine creaking. 

“Once upon a time-” 

Peter cuddled his blanket and his thumb found its way into his mouth as he listened. 

“A little girl lived in a tall tower-” 

Soon the story was over and Peter’s eyes were struggling to stay open. The only sounds in the room were his breathing, his heartbeat and the sound of his sucking. It was very soothing and soon enough Peter found himself asleep. 

He woke up the next morning by himself, there was no alarm. It was Saturday. He heard voices coming from downstairs and rolled onto his back. His thumb was still in his mouth and he didn’t bother to remove it, content to lay there for a moment. There was a knock at the door and he pulled his thumb out, wiping the evidence away on his sleep shirt as he sat up. The door opened a crack. 

“Peter?”

It was May.

“May?” 

She opened the door wider and walked it, closing it behind her. She was pregnant. Like, _really_ pregnant. He stared at her belly for a second. There was an actual baby in there. She really had replaced him. He found his fingers going up to his mouth in a desperate attempt to self soothe but settled for chewing on his nails instead. 

“Peter,” she said warmly. She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed. He brought his legs up to his chest to give her more room and his pull up crinkled loudly. Peter’s face burned but May hadn’t seemed to realize what the noise was. She put her hand on his forehead. 

“Honey, you’re really red.” 

That made Peter’s face burn even more. He could feel it all the way in his ears. 

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no. I’m fine.” he reassured. 

She hummed and ran a hand through his hair. 

“Happy told me what happened yesterday.” She changed the subject. 

Peter looked away, picking at the edge of his blanket. 

“He did?”

“He did. Honey, what’s wrong? Were you not feeling well?” 

Peter nodded, it wasn’t quite a lie. His head had been pounding yesterday. 

“My poor baby.” she said. 

“I’m not your baby anymore, May.” he said looking at her stomach. 

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” she said. 

Peter shrugged as if to say ‘it is what it is’.

“Come on, Tony and Pepper are making breakfast. I’m sure that Morgan wants to see you.” 

Peter doubted that but got out of bed anyway. The crinkle noise was back as he stood.

“Did you hear that?” asked Aunt May, frowning. 

Peter’s eyes widened and he shook his head quickly. A little too quickly to be believable. She gave him a look but shrugged it off, standing carefully, a hand on her back. 

“I’ll see you downstairs.”

Peter was relieved when she left because as soon as he stood, he realized his lower half was cold and wet. He’d never been so thankful for a diaper in his life. If he hadn’t been wearing one, his bedsheets would have been soaked in front of May and Peter wasn’t quite sure he’d be able to handle another person finding out he wet the bed every time he fell asleep.

He went to the bathroom, locked the door and looked under the sink. There he found a package of old baby wipes that probably belonged to Morgan when she was smaller. He pulled one out and got to work cleaning himself up and throwing everything away. Little green and blue stars had formed on the diaper while it had been wet, he noticed with embarrassment. He then realized he’d forgotten to grab any underwear and put his towel around his waist. He snuck back to his room and put on a pair of clean boxer shorts before going back to the bathroom. He put his pajama pants back on and brushed his teeth. His mouth tasted sweet like candy when he finished and he turned out the lights before heading downstairs.

Everyone was there. Happy and May were talking to Tony and Pepper as the two cooked breakfast. Morgan was sitting at the coffee table in front of the TV, coloring. Everyone was already dressed and Peter suddenly felt out of place in his pajamas. He was right about to turn around and change when May saw him.

“Peter! We were just talking about you. Come over here.” She beckoned with a smile. She was leaning back against the Happy at the counter. They looked at each other before Happy gave her a kiss. Peter made a disgusted face. He’d probably never get used to the fact that his aunt and Happy were married. Tony barked a laugh. 

“Should have seen the kid’s face when you two kissed.” Everyone laughed good naturedly. 

“Get used to it, buddy. They are married.” Peter made another face. Everyone laughed again and Peter cracked a smile. Morgan rushed in from the other room, pushing past Peter's legs roughly.   
“Mommy! Daddy! I made a picture!” Everyone’s attention flocked to the little girl. She reached her father and made grabby hands which he complied to by picking her up and setting her on his hip. Peter sat down at the breakfast table. 

“What’d you make, Maguna?”  
She flapped a piece of paper around hitting Tony in the face with it accidentally. He blinked and everyone giggled. 

“It’s our family.” she said softly. Everyone gathered around except Peter who watched from the background.

“This is you, this is me, this is Mommy, this is Gerald, and over here is Petey.” she said pointing to everyone in the drawing. Peter got up, curious at the mention of his name and leaned over to see the picture. 

Everyone was there drawn in colorful crayon. They were even labeled in scratchy writing. And at the far end of the page after the family alpaca, Gerald, was Peter. His face reddened immensely when he saw there was a yellow spot under his stick figure. There was green above it to indicate the grass. No one seemed to notice, probably thinking it was a mistake or a colorful embellishment. But Peter knew what it was. She’d drawn his stick figure _peeing itself_. He wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out. He felt a little dizzy and sat heavily back down in his chair. No one noticed and continued to gush over the ‘adorable’ family portrait. 

“Look, Peter, you’re in it!” Pepper announced. Peter nodded with a forced smile and she smiled back before turning around. His smile dropped immediately. 

“I think this should be framed.” said Tony smiling at the little girl. Peter swallowed weakly then stood up and left the room. 

He suddenly wasn’t feeling well and went into his bedroom, climbing into bed and wrapping his blanket around himself. Stupid picture. Stupid Morgan. Stupid fake apology. Stupid Peter for beliving her. 

He stuck his fingers in his mouth. 

No one came to check on him until much later. He was on his phone, scrolling through Instagram and frequently checking his text messages for anything from Ned. Nothing. He had his thumb in his mouth. The door burst open and he groaned, taking his thumb out of his mouth and turning around to face the door. Morgan was standing there, her head tilted in curiosity. 

“Where did you go?” she asked. 

“I’ve been here the whole time.” he said sitting up. 

“Oh.” she replied. 

“Yeah. ‘Oh.’ Why did you draw me in that picture, Morgan?” he said getting straight to the point.

She smiled devilishly then shrugged. 

“I don’t know.” she said. 

He sighed then tried to make it simple for her. 

“It really hurt my feelings, Mo.”

Her smile grew wider. 

“I know.”

He glared at her and she shrugged again, kicking her feet.

“Daddy likes me more than you.” she said changing the subject. 

Ouch. 

“Tell me something I don’t know.” he said, picking his nails, annoyed. She looked at him curiously. 

“Where’s your teddy bear?” she asked suddenly.

“Huh?” he looked at her in surprise.

“I saw it. In a box. Where is it?”  
It was Peter’s turn to shrug. He honestly didn’t know. 

“I want to play with it.” she told him.

“I don’t know where it is,” he said, turning back to his nails. 

“Besides, why would I let _you_ play with it?”

“Because if you don’t, I’ll tell Auntie May that you’re a baby and you suck your thumb.” 

Peter looked back up at her with disbelief. Everyday, this girl surprised him by making his life worse. 

“ _I don’t know_ where it is.” he grit his teeth. 

“Then I’ll look for it.” she announced skipping in the room. 

Peter sighed and swung his legs over the bed and stood up. She opened his dresser drawers, looking under his neatly folded clothes. He helped her look because the sooner they found it, the sooner she would leave. Peter was on the other side of the room when Morgan opened the closet. She gasped and he shot up from where he was looking under the bed. 

“Oh Petey.” she sang. “I found your _diapers_.” 

Peter bolted over the bed and shut the closet making her jump back. 

“No, you didn’t.” he said, but he was grasping at straws. 

She just smiled up at him. Oh, this was great, great, blackmail material. She nodded slowly with a big smile on her face as if to say ‘oh yes I did, and now I've got the upper hand on you’.

“Where’s the Teddy, Petey?” she asked innocently, as if she didn’t just find out his biggest secret since Spider-Man. He turned around and opened the closet slowly, looking around. At the top was a box marked ‘PETER’S TOYS, ECT.’ and he pulled it down, standing on his toes. He placed it on the ground and closed the closet doors. Morgan was crouched down, the teddy bear already at her side as she rummaged through the box. Peter crouched down on the other side of the box watching as she went through his baby things. 

Inside the box were a couple of old board games, a VHS tape or two of some old baby shows like Blue’s Clues and Clifford the Big Red Dog, another smaller baby blanket than the one on his bed, a pair of white toddler socks, a pacifier and some old books. She took out the books and put them to the side, she’d read them later. 

“Is this yours?” she asked, pulling out the red and orange pacifier. 

“It used to be,” he replied.

“Why isn’t it now?”

“I’m sixteen years old, now. That’s for babies.” he told her.

She looked at it thoughtfully before looking back at him, a smile growing on her face.

“You _are_ a baby.” 

He glares at her but doesn’t say anything. She puts the pacifier back in the box and stands up with the brown bear in her arms, Peter standing up, too. He puts away the box and turns back to her. 

“Hey, we should play a game!” she announces, her eyes lighting up. Peter would love nothing less. 

“I don’t want to play a game, Morg. I’m tired.” he crosses his arms over his chest. 

She glances at the closet then back at him. 

“I’ll tell Auntie May.”

Peter groans. 

“ _Fine_. What game are we playing?”

“You be the baby and I be the mommy. Okay?”

Peter feels dread in his stomach but nods anyways. 

“Here, Baby.” she says, handing him the teddy bear. He takes it. 

“Lay down. I’ll get your blankey.” 

He sits on the carpet, before laying down on his back still holding the bear. She pulls his navy baby blanket off the bed and drapes it over him and sits on her knees next to his head.

“Now, suck your thumb, Baby.”

“I’m not doing that Morgan. I’m serious.”

“ _Petey-_ ” she warns. She sounds just like her father. 

“I’ll tell her you wear diapers, too.” she says. 

Peter doesn’t think he could take the mortification of Morgan walking into the living room waving around one of the Goodnites. She doesn’t only have her word and everyone on her side- she has _proof,_ too. He’s angry but he does it, slowly bringing his thumb up and sticking it in his mouth. She smiles. 

“Good Baby.” she leans down and kisses his forehead. “Now close your eyes.” 

He does so, squeezing them tightly. 

“It’s nigh-night time.” she whispers. She strokes his hair as he sucks. 

“Morgan!” There’s a call from downstairs. Peter’s eyes fly open and he sits up, pulling his thumb out of his mouth. The blanket falls into his lap. 

“Coming!” She yells back. She gives Peter a smirk and leaps to her feet, her mary janes clicking as she runs out of the room. Peter’s heart is beating impossibly fast. He feels like he’d almost been caught doing something illegal. He takes a shaky breath. He would never do that again. 


	8. It’s Okay, I Won’ t Make Fun of You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Vomit Warning for this chapter*

Peter got up from off the floor tossing his bear and his blanket on the bed. He felt the anger bubble up in him again. He can’t believe a five year old is blackmailing him. He wants to rip his own hair out in frustration but he doesn’t.

Instead, he gets dressed. Putting on jeans, a science pun t-shirt and his soft red sweater. He pulls on socks and shoes and pockets his phone from the nightstand. The boy heads downstairs. Everyone is milling about, chatting with one another. He walks into the kitchen where a plate sits on the counter. A sticky note is on the plastic wrap surrounding it.

‘For Peter’ it reads. He opens the wrap and finds a single cheese omelet inside. He microwaves it and sits at his usual spot at the kitchen table by the door. He pokes at the omelet, not very hungry but takes a few bites anyways. His stomach does flip flops and the bites of spongy omelet turn to rocks in his stomach. He’s eating when a hard gag surprises him and he covers his mouth. Another gag hits and he almost throws up right there at the breakfast table. He takes a deep breath removing his hand when he doesn’t feel the imminent urge to vomit. The smell of the omlete is making him nauseated. He stands and tosses the rest of it in the trash before grabbing a light blue plastic cup from the cabinet. He fills it with tap water and drinks it quickly. That was a huge mistake.

Peter feels his stomach lurch. And he’s gagging again. He bends over the sink and retches. Water and bits of cheese omelet rush out of his mouth and run down the drain. He’s coughing harshly when he throws up again, gripping the edge of the stainless steel sink. Luckily, there are no dishes in the sink. Tears of exertion rush down his face and he’s heaving in breaths.

Pepper walks in and sees him breathing heavily over the sink. She walks over in concern. There’s bits of undigested food in the basin along with lots of water and spit she notices. 

“Honey, are you okay?” she asks, worried. She puts a hand on his arm.

He nods. He feels much better now. 

“Mommy-” Morgan walks in. 

“Baby, go get your father.”

“Okay.” and Morgan leaves, presumably to get Tony. 

Peter coughs into his elbow harshly and sniffs. He wipes away the tears with his hands and Pepper leads him to his spot at the kitchen table again. 

“Hey, Pep. What’s going on?” asks Tony, walking in.

“Peter threw up in the sink.” she states.

Tony’s eyes widen and he turns to the boy who looks up at him through his lashes before looking away. 

“Pete, are you okay?” 

Peter nods.  
“I feel much better now.” he says, quietly. 

Tony winces in sympathy.

“You want some water, kid? Might help your throat.”

Peter shakes his head, his eyes wide.

“Okay, we have some of Morgan’s Pedialyte from the last time she got sick. You want some of that?”

Peter grimaces. Pedialyte tastes disgusting. But he doesn't say no, so Tony pours him a cup. 

“Drink up.” he says, pushing the green plastic cup across the table. Peter sips at it, making a disgusted face.

“It’s not _that_ bad. Come on.”

“Then you drink it.” Peter says, annoyed.  
“Uh, no.” Tony replies and Peter gives him a look that says ‘that’s what I thought.’

“I never said it wasn’t bad, I said it wasn’t _that_ bad. There’s a difference.” Tony says. 

Peter rolls his eyes as he takes another sip. His stomach is feeling loads better now. Tony and Pepper leave the room, saying something about talking to Happy and Morgan walks in.

“What are you drinking?” she asks, climbing into the chair next to him. 

“Pedialyte.” Peter answers.   
She wrinkles her nose. 

“Ew.” she says and Peter has to agree with her. 

He takes another sip anyways. 

“Your Auntie May is nice.” she says swinging her legs. 

“She is,” Peter agrees. 

Morgan goes quiet, kicking her legs harder when her shoe connects with Peter’s shin. 

“Ouch!” Peter jumps, almost knocking his cup over but managing to catch it before it fell. He reaches down and rubs the area where he’d been kicked. A bruise already blossoming there. 

“Sorry,” Morgan smiles, a fingernail in her mouth. 

“It’s fine. Just watch where you kick next time.” he replies, straightening up. 

“Okay.” She replies before resuming the kicking of her legs. They sit in silence for a while, Peter finishing the cup of juice when her foot connects with his leg again. 

“Oops.” she says, watching as Peter hisses. It has been in the same spot as the first time. There was definitely gonna be a bruise there. 

“That hurts, Morgan. Please stop kicking me.”

She shrugs before hopping down from her chair and skipping to the living room. Peter stands and goes to the sink, rinsing it thoroughly before washing his cup and setting it out to dry. 

He walks out to the living room where Morgan is talking to Tony who’s sitting on the couch next to May.  
“Daddy, Petey’s being a big meanie!” she tells him, a fake pout on her lips.

Peter shouldn’t be shocked anymore. Morgan lies to get attention.

“Peter!” Tony calls, not realizing Peter was in the room.

“I’m right here.” He frowns. 

“Pete, what have you been doing to your sister?”

“She’s not my sister.” he growls out. 

“What did you say?” now it’s Tony’s turn to get angry.

“She’s _not_ my _sister_.” 

“You’d better lose the attitude, young man. I’m not afraid to punish you.” Tony says.

The room goes quiet. No one has seen Peter like this before.

“You wouldn’t.” Peter grits out.

“Uh-huh? You want to take that bet?”

Peter looks at the ground contemplating.

  
“That’s what I thought. Go to your room, you’re done for the day,” 

Peter stomped to his room, slamming the door behind him. Another wrong decision. 

Tony rushes up the stairs, opening the door just as Peter sits on the edge of the bed.

“Did I just hear this door slam? Or am I imagining things?”

Peter says nothing, knowing when to quit. 

“Because _I swore_ , I told you to lose the attitude.” Again Peter says nothing. 

He avoids his old mentor’s gaze, looking at his shoes instead. 

“Give me your phone. You’re grounded for the day.” he says.

Peter pulls out his phone and hands it over with a scowl. 

“ _Lose the attitude_ or we’ll make it all weekend.” he says.

Peter stays quiet leaning against the bed with his arms crossed. He looks anywhere else but the man. Mr. Stark nods once before leaving the room and closing the door. 

Peter lays back on his bed and wipes his hands over his face, frustrated. This was all Morgan’s fault. _Again_. He sits up, pulls his shoes off, tossing them on the floor, before crawling in further and laying on his side. He pulls his blanket over himself, curling up underneath it. He sighs and wishes May hadn’t abandoned him. He could be at home in Queens- but May got a new house and a new husband and a shiny new baby. Leaving him all alone with _Morgan_. He feels a little resentment towards her. 

He just lays there for a while, not knowing what time it was because he didn’t have a phone or a watch of any kind. He figures he might as well do his homework- it wouldn’t be Midtown without homework on the weekend. 

Peter is reading his book for English on his bed, his blanket in his lap- when he hears the door swing open. He looks up and low and behold, it’s Morgan. As if she hasn’t bothered him enough today. 

“What are you doing?” she asks, standing by the door and holding onto the knob. 

“What does it look like? I’m reading.” he snaps.

She frowns. 

“Will you read to me?” she asks. 

“What? No.” he says looking back at his book. 

“I’ll tell Daddy you’re being a meanie to me again.” she pouts. 

Peter glowers at her. But what else could Mr. Stark do to him at this point? He was already grounded, his phone was already taken away. 

“No.” he says. 

Morgan glares back at him before turning on her heel. Daddy would have something to say about this, she thought. She runs down the stairs and finds him walking Auntie May and Uncle Happy out the front door. 

“Tell Peter I said good-bye and I love him,” says Auntie May walking out the door. “And we’ll see you soon, too, Morgan.” she tells her caressing the little girl’s cheek once she notices her standing there. 

“See you later, Auntie May.” the tiny girl waves. 

May chuckles and Happy takes her arm leading her to the car. The family watches them until they drive away and Morgan suddenly remembers why she’s here. 

“Daddy, Petey’s being mean to me.” she announces. 

Tony sighs. What was with Peter today. He wasn’t usually like this. 

“What did he say to you, Morgan?”

Morgan thinks for a minute, wracking her brain for a believable lie. To her Daddy, it seems like she’s just hesitant to tell on her older brother. 

“It’s okay, Mo, you can tell me.” He says crouching down in front of her and taking her hands in his large ones. 

She gives him her biggest puppy eyes. She found a believable lie.

“He called me a baby.” she says looking at her father, hoping he believes her. 

Of course, he does. 

“Let me talk to him.” he says letting her go. 

He walks past her towards the stairs and she starts to follow. She wouldn't miss this for the world. Peter is sitting on his bed, trying to stay awake while he reads what has to be the most boring book in the English language when he hears a knock on the door. It opens as he looks up. Mr. Stark looks frustrated and Peter immediately knows Morgan told on him. He sees her standing in the hallway behind Tony, and she smirks when she catches his eye. 

“Really, Peter? Name calling?” Tony starts, walking into the room. He sits on the chair by the desk. “What is your problem today?” 

Peter’s mood turns sour. He sets his book down and crosses his arms, staring at his bedsheets.

“I didn’t do anything,” he says. 

“Really? I’ve heard otherwise.”

“She’s lying to you.”

  
“Why would she lie to me, Pete? What would she have to gain?”

“She always lies to you. She hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you, no one does. Do you know why I’m here to punish you?” Peter looks up wearily at that. He shakes his head.

“We don’t tolerate bullying in this house, Pete. You need to get up and apologize to Morgan, then you need to come here.” he says. 

Peter gets up carefully and walks to the door. Morgan looks up at him and he looks back at Mr. Stark. The man nods and Peter turns back to the little girl. She looks up expectantly. 

“I’m sorry, Morgan.” he says. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth. 

“It’s okay, Petey.” she says, then pats his leg reassuringly. She feels a little guilty. Like she’s taken this too far, but she doesn't know how to get out of it so she says nothing in fear it will get her in trouble instead. 

He turns back around and walks to Mr. Stark.

  
“Good.” the man says. 

“Now time to start your punishment.” 

Peter’s mouth drops open. 

“That wasn’t part of the punishment?”

  
“Why would that be part of it?”

“I- well- because-” Peter stammers. 

“Let’s get this show on the road, then, shall we?” 

Peter pales as Mr. Stark stands up. The man is only a few inches taller than Peter but now, Peter feels like he towers over him. He takes Peter’s arm and pulls him out of the room and down the stairs. Morgan follows nosily. 

He sits him at the kitchen table and leaves the room. 

“You’re in so much trouble,” says Morgan. 

“No thanks to you,” Peter replied moodily. 

Mr. Stark returns with a pencil and a sheet of paper and sets it down in front of him. 

“You’re gonna write an essay about lying and bullying.” he says, writing ‘ _I will not lie or be mean_ ’ at the top of the page. Peter almost laughs at the absurdity of it all. 

May’s had Peter do this before- write an essay when he’s misbehaved. He didn’t think he’d have to do it again after she left his life. Mr. Stark hands him the pencil and sits down across from him in Morgan’s usual spot. The girl loses interest in the situation when the room goes quiet with only the sound of pencil hitting paper being heard and she leaves the room to go play.

Peter is finally finished with his essay ten minutes later. He’d bullshitted the entire thing talking about how lying was bad and bullying was mean and how he wouldn’t want to be bullied himself. (Even though he already was by the five year old, but he didn’t write that part down.) He sighed and Mr. Stark looked up from his phone. Tony took the paper. 

“Now you’re gonna stand in that corner until I tell you you can come out.” he says, directing Peter to a corner of the kitchen. 

“You’re gonna think about all the things you wrote about until it sticks in your head.” he says as he begins to read Peter’s paper. Peter stands up, annoyed and goes to the corner. He rests his head on the wall and thinks about how annoying Morgan is and how he really dislikes both her and Tony right now. 

Sixteen minutes later, Mr. Stark lets him out of the corner and Peter is beyond pissed but he’s also tired of being angry. He sits back down at the table.   
“This is a good paper, Pete. Let me ask you this, would you do it again?”

“No, sir.” 

“Good. Looks like you’ve learned your lesson.” 

Peter says nothing looking at his hands which are interlocked on the table. 

“You can go back to your room.” 

That’s all the encouragement Peter needs and he stands up, the scrape of his chair against the tile making them both wince. He leaves without a second glance at Tony, walking back to his bedroom and closing the door behind himself quietly. He wishes there was a way to lock it.

He lays back down on his bed, this time on his back, and rubs his blanket on his cheek, sticking his thumb in his mouth. Instantly, he feels better. His anger ebbed away- not entirely, but mostly. 

He can hear people milling about downstairs, vaguely wondering what they were doing. He falls asleep in the quiet room, bored. 

There's a knock at his door and he wakes up. He’s dry for once and he doesn't recall having any dreams. He pulls his thumb out of his mouth as whoever is on the other side of the door opens it softly. 

“Petey,” a whisper says. It’s Morgan on the other side. 

The room is dark except for his nightlight. 

“It’s dinner time.” she whisper-shouts as if he’s still sleeping. He sits up as she watches. 

He sighs and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. 

“Are you coming?” she asks after a minute. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m coming.” he replies with a yawn. 

“Okay.” she says, waiting for him to get out of bed. 

He swings his legs over, pushing aside the blankets and stands up- the cold air going through his jeans as he escapes the warmth of the bed. Morgan bolts the minute he reaches the door and rushes down the stairs, her tiny bare feet slapping the hardwood. She’s in pajamas already, he noticed. 

He follows her to the dining room and notices Pepper’s not there. He sits down at his place at the table. There are two pizzas set out. 

“Hey, Pete. How’s it going?”  
Peter shrugs. 

“Where’s Mrs. Stark?”

“She had an emergency meeting to get to.” Tony says grabbing a slice and putting it on a plate. He passes it to Morgan. 

“So, you munchkins- are stuck with me all night.” he smiles, reaching for another slice. Peter stands up and gets his own plate of pizza. He grabs two slices, nevermind that he could probably eat both pizzas by himself. He sits back down.

“I was thinking we could do a movie-night, tonight.” says Mr. Stark. 

Morgan cheers from her spot at the table. 

“What do you guys want to watch?” he asked, taking a bite of his own slice. 

Peter shrugs but Morgan is quick to answer.

“Can we watch Moana?” 

“Honey, we watched Moana not too long ago.” 

“Oh.” 

“What if we watched something else? What about The Lion King?” 

Morgan nods into her pizza.

“Then it’s settled.” 

Peter focuses on trying to eat his pizza. For some reason, it’s really hard to get down. He takes another bite and it tastes disgusting. He always loved pizza, so he’s not sure why this pizza in particular was giving him so much trouble. He swallows and it almost comes right back up as he gags. He manages to swallow it back down but there's no way he’s gonna be able to finish his second slice without vomiting. He drinks from his little pink plastic cup of coke finding that the bubbles are settling his stomach. Maybe, now he could eat since he was feeling a little better. He takes one more bite but the smell of the pizza is making him nauseated and he stands up, taking his plate to the kitchen. He holds the bit of pizza in his mouth rushing to the trash can. He gags but manages to hold it back and spits the pizza into the trash. His stomach feels better already. He sits down for a moment and sets his dishes on the table in front of him. He’d been so close to vomiting again. 

“Pete! It’s movie time!” says Tony from the other room. 

Peter stands up, the adrenaline fading. He walks into the living room. Morgan and Tony had migrated from the dining room to the living room couch where Tony was setting up. He tossed some blankets and pillows on top of Morgan who squealed in excitement from her seat on the couch. She emerged from the sheets giggling at her father with her hair sticking up in the air from the static. Tony chuckled at the sight. Tony noticed Peter watching from the kitchen archway.

“Go get your stuff, Pete. We’ll wait for you.” he says plopping down next to Morgan. She immediately cuddles into his side. 

“Okay…” says Peter. He hesitated. Did he really want to sit there with them all night? Morgan probably had a bedtime though… He decided he might as well. He’d forgiven Tony, but Morgan? She’d yet to show him any reason to forgive her. 

He went upstairs and grabbed his navy blanket, taking it downstairs and sitting on Tony’s other side. 

“FRIDAY? Play it.” 

And the movie began.

They’re at the part with the wildebeests, and Simba is running- trying to get away. The music is dramatic. Simba is clinging to a tree and all Peter can think of is ‘ _Hang in there_ SEPTEMBER 2023’- The calendar from the hospital. 

_‘Long live the king’_ says Scar and Mufasa falls to his death. A gunshot rings in Peter’s ears and he jumps slightly. He remembers Uncle Ben falling, too. He shifts until he’s buried in Tony’s side. The man doesn’t seem to notice and unconsciously wraps his arm around the boy. The dust clears and the music turns somber. Tony straightens up. This was a bad movie choice. A _really bad_ movie choice he realizes. Peter turns his face away, into Tony's side. 

_‘Dad? Dad? Come on’_ says Simba 

‘ _You’ve got to get up. Dad._ ’

Peter’s heart is racing and there’s a lump in his throat. 

Tony struggles, pushing away blankets. He’s looking for the remote but he can’t seem to find it. 

‘ _Help! Help! Anybody…_ ’ 

Peter’s face crumples and Tony stands up, desperately searching for the remote. Simba is crying and suddenly Peter is, too. A heart breaking sob wrenches violently out of him. 

“ _Fuck_! Where’s the fucking remote!” shouts Tony. 

‘ _Simba... what have you done?_ ’

Uncle Ben’s blood is everywhere. _What have I done? Why didn’t I stop it?_

Peter’s sobs pierce the air and he gasps for breath, covering his face with his hands.

Morgan’s mouth is as wide as her eyes except she’s not looking at the TV anymore, she’s looking at Peter who is crying harshly at the other end of the couch. Her Daddy is looking frantically for the TV remote. 

Morgan doesn’t understand. Sure, Mufasa’s death was sad and she’d even shed a tear or two, but was this really necessary? She doesn’t think she’s seen Peter cry so hard, even after he peed his pants in Happy’s car. She gets off the couch and her Daddy looks between the cushions where she was sitting as she walks over to stand in front of Peter. 

“Are you okay?” she asks, more concerned than she’s ever been in her life. 

Peter doesn’t answer her, trying so hard to calm down. He’s removed his hands from his face and is now doubled over, his arms wrapped around himself as he watches his tears fall to the hardwood. 

The movie scene is over now but he can’t stop crying. Morgan puts her hands on his cheeks and lifts his head up gently. 

He heaves in air between sobs and looks at her. Her face is pinched in an unreadable expression. 

“There, there, Petey. There’ s no need to cry.” she says, tilting her head and patting his cheek. 

She wipes away a tear but it’s quickly replaced by another one. 

Hakuna Matata starts to play in the background and Tony suddenly remembers.

“FRIDAY, stop the movie.” he sighs. The movie stops and the screen goes dark. The living room lights turn on but they’re dim.

He sits back on the couch, and buries his face in his hands. For someone so smart, he could be a real _idiot_ sometimes. Peter sniffles next to him, but has stopped crying so hard. Peter brings his legs to his chest. 

“Here, Petey.” Morgan says, taking his hand. She closes his fingers into a fist, leaving his thumb out and brings it up to his face. 

“It’s okay, I won’t make fun of you.” she says quietly. 

He eyes her wearily, but then accepts it, putting his thumb in his mouth and sucking on it. 

Morgan suddenly feels guilty over the way she’d been treating the boy lately. He’d obviously been hurting. She’s still angry with him for upsetting her father and trying to take him away from her, but he’s sad right now and for some reason deep-down, that makes her sad, too. 

Tony looks up from his hands at the two. Morgan is patting the boy's arm and he has his thumb lodged in his mouth as tears roll down his cheeks. Tony rubs his own face with his hand. _When had Peter picked up this habit_? He wonders. It worries him.

“Here you go, Petey.” says Morgan, she bends down and picks up the kid’s blanket, handing it to him. He takes it with his other hand and pulls it close to his chest. 

It would have been cute had it not been so concerning. Tony doesn’t want to ruin the moment between his two kids so he stays quiet. 

Morgan then climbs onto the couch and sits in the small space between Tony and Peter. She pats the boy’s arm and he scoots so his head is laying on the arm of the couch. His tears roll off onto the leather but the thumb-sucking is doing it’s job of soothing him. Morgan leans into her brother’s side. 

“Daddy…” she begins. 

“Let’s watch a different movie.” 

Peter’s body shutters beneath her own and he sniffles into the quiet of the room.

“Yeah... Yeah. Let’s watch a different movie.” Tony agrees.

“FRIDAY? Turn on Moana.” 

“Of course, Boss.” says FRIDAY and the lights turn off as the movie begins to play.

Half an hour later, Peter is curled up at the end of the sofa, his blanket under his cheek and his thumb in his mouth. He’s laying on the armrest, almost asleep, breathing deeply. Morgan is sitting next to him, laying almost on top of him and Tony is on her other side, his arms across his chest as he leans back against the sofa. They don’t last too long into Moana before Tony is turning it off. 

He stands up, stretching as the lights turn on. Morgan and Peter make no indication that they’re gonna move, when the front door opens. Pepper walks in, her heels clicking on the harwood as she closes the door. 

“Hey, guys how was movie-night?” she asks, giving Tony a quick kiss on the lips. 

No one says anything and she notices the somber tone of the room. She turns to the children and sees they’re cuddled up against one another and a sad smile crosses her face when she looks at Peter. He looks like he’s had a hard day. She goes up, crouches down, and kisses both children’s foreheads. Saying nothing about Peter’s tearstained face or the thumb in his mouth.

“Hey, guys.” she says softly, cradling their faces in her palms. 

“It looks like it’s bedtime.” 

She looks at Tony from her position on the floor. 

“Will you take Peter to bed, Honey? I’ll take Morgan.” she says. Tony nods and Pepper picks up the little girl and sets her on her hip. She takes one last look at Peter who’s pulling his thumb out of his mouth and is starting to sit up, before heading to Morgan’s room.

Tony steps forward and takes Pepper's place crouched on the floor in front of Peter. The kid looks beat and rubs his eyes with his fists. 

“Come on, bud. Let’s get you to bed.” 

Tony takes Peter by the arm and gently pulls him to his feet. The blanket falls to the floor and Tony bends to grab it, giving it to the sleepy boy. He takes Peter’s other hand and leads him to his bedroom. 

“Let’s get you into pajamas, kiddo.” he says, opening the drawers of his dresser. He pulls out a long sleeve grey shirt and some plaid sleep pants. Peter has one leg on the bed where he sits and the other resting on the floor. He’s rubbing his eyes again tiredly. He helps Peter pull off his sweater and T-shirt and guides his arms through the grey top. Then as Peter is pulling off his jeans, Tony goes to the closet, pulling out a grey diaper. He trades the boy the jeans for the diaper, and turns around as Peter takes off his boxers and replaces them with the training pants. Peter stands up and pulls them all the way up, before reaching for the red and black plaid pants. 

“You good?” asks Tony.

“Mmm-hmm.” replies Peter sleepily.

Tony turns around as Peter finishes pulling up the pants around his waist. The teen crawls under the covers and lays down. Tony smoothes them out before handing him his baby blanket. Peter takes it and puts it under his head and stuffs his thumb in his mouth. He sighs around it and Tony looks on sadly, beginning to run his hands through the boy’s curls, untangling them with his fingers. Peter’s eyes droop and he snaps them open, just for them to close again. He swears he hears Tony’s voice say ‘ _Go to sleep, baby boy,_ ’ but he doubts it. He falls asleep before he’s even aware. 

Tony watches the sleeping boy suck his thumb, sadly, still brushing his fingers through the boy’s hair. He hadn’t realized the kid had been hurting so much until he saw him sucking his thumb, looking for comfort from somewhere- anywhere. He had to make it up to him somehow. With this in mind, he stands up and turns off the light, a crappy night light he’d never noticed turning on in the corner of the room. He’d royally messed up and he had to fix it. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IDK!!! Is Morgan too nice now?? She’s supposed to still be angry but she found it inside herself to not be mean to Peter when he’s crying so hard. She also feels a bit guilty. And Tony finally noticed he screwed up. Am I going to fast? This chapter was almost 5,000 words...


	9. Green Apple Baby-Toothpaste

Peter wakes up in his bed. He had his thumb half way out his mouth and now that he’s awake, he puts it back in, sucking soothingly. He doesn’t remember all of last night because he’d been half asleep through the majority of Moana. But his breakdown over Uncle Ben in the middle of The Lion King? He remembers that crystal clear. And he wishes he didn’t. The only good thing about last night was Morgan. She’d actually shown him kindness for the first time since they’d met. But then he’d sucked his thumb in front of Mr. Stark. Had Pepper seen him? He hoped not. He’d never live down the embarrassment. There's a soft knock at his door and he removes his thumb, turning on his side to face the door. It opens.

“Petey, it’s breakfast time.” says Morgan, whisper-shouting again.

“Oh.’’ she says, once she realizes he’s awake.

“Daddy said to come get you for breakfast. It’s waffle day.” she says, then leaves without bothering to close the door. 

Peter sits up and the door slowly creaks until it’s all the way open. The smell of home cooked waffles wafts into the room and Peter’s stomach gurgles hungrily. He’s starving but he’s not sure he’ll be able to eat anything at all today. 

He stands up and notices he’s wet. But he hadn’t even dreamed that night. There were no nightmares. He feels dread in the pit of his stomach. Was this what it was going to be like from now on? Was he going to… do _this_ … every night even without the nightmares? He groans and grabs some new clothes. Might as well shower. 

He showers using _Watermelon Blast_ and brushes his teeth using the sparkly strawberry paste and both make him feel sick. The sickly sweet smell and taste making his stomach churn. He changes into jeans, a science pun t-shirt and a button down and leaves it open so you can see the stupid pun. His hair is curling because of the water. Today, he’d had to wash it with kids tearless two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. It smelled like baby soap. He dries his hair with a towel and it’s now all over the place. He runs a brush through it. Since the snap, he hadn’t been able to style his hair like he used to- since he’s had no product- and the curls he hates are set free. He grimaces in the mirror when he can’t seem to tame them and leaves the room. 

He goes down the stairs and the smell of waffles is stronger. But now it is accompanied with the smell of scrambled eggs. It makes him want to vomit. He isn’t sure how he’s going to get through breakfast. 

Mr. Stark is flipping the waffle maker and Mrs. Stark is serving eggs on four plates. For once, Peter is glad they’ve forgotten about his metabolism, that way no one can force him to eat more. He sits at the table across from Morgan who’s drinking a cup of milk loudly. 

“Hey there, Pete.” says Mr. Stark, ripping off and eating a piece of an already made fluffy waffle. 

“Hi, Mr. Stark.” replies Peter. 

“You know, you don’t have to call me that anymore, you do in fact- live here.” 

“His name is Daddy.” says Morgan, looking up from her cup. 

“Actually, Baby, Daddy’s name is Tony.” says Pepper, setting a plate of eggs in front of the two children. 

Peter doesn’t answer and gulps looking at his eggs. He picks up the provided fork and shakily takes a bite. No one seems to notice that he is struggling. By the time he’s halfway through his buttery eggs, Mr. Stark drops a plate of waffles on the table. Shit. He’d forgotten about them in his effort to eat the eggs. 

“Eat up,” says Mr. Stark, pulling out a chair.   
The man sits down and begins to eat his own breakfast, Pepper going to sit next to him and start on hers. They sit for a minute and Tony takes a drink of his coffee. The only sound is the scraping of cutlery on ceramic plates. Everyone is eating except for Peter. 

Peter fidgets with his fingers. He’s no longer hungry and all he’s eaten is a few bites of scrambled egg and a couple of sips from his milk. 

“Pete, aren’t you gonna eat a waffle?” says Mr. Stark, eyeing him.

Peter squirms under his gaze. 

“Um. I’m not very hungry…” he replies.

“You haven’t even eaten anything.” 

Peter says nothing.

“Here, take a waffle. Eat at least a little bit.” 

Mr. Stark puts a waffle on his plate. Pepper and Morgan are chatting about their dreams. Peter looks at Mr. Stark who goes back to eating his own breakfast. Maybe if Peter eats the waffle dry, the sweetness of the syrup won’t make his taste buds burn. 

He takes a tentative bite. It’s not so bad. He chews far past the point of it being normal before he swallows. He sips his milk to help it go down before taking another bite. He can taste every ingredient put into the waffles, down to the sprinkle of cinnamon they’d added and now it’s making him feel sick. This time he can’t swallow. He gags harshly and pushes his chair out from under the table, standing up and rushing to the trash can. Everyone stops to look as he spits out the piece of waffle he couldn’t consume. He gags again and almost pukes but doesn’t. Mr. Stark gets out of his chair, concerned. He rubs Peter’s back as he leans over the trash.

“Hey, you okay, Kid? Think you're gonna puke?” 

Peter hesitates, before he shakes his head. The nausea is fading. He stands back up and Tony leads him back to the table. Peter pushes his plate away and rests his head in his arms. He doesn’t know why he can’t eat anymore and he can feel his stomach asking for more food. But he just can’t do it. 

“You sure you’re okay, bud?”

Peter nods. He feels, strangely, fine again

The Starks finish their meal and everyone stands up. Pepper takes Morgan’s hand.  
“I’m gonna get this one dressed.” she says, giving Tony a peck on the cheek and Peter a wave. Tony starts washing the dishes and Peter is asked to put away the already clean ones on the drying rack and inside the dishwasher from the night before. He does so only asking a few times where things went. 

“Mr. Stark, where do we keep the glass containers?” he asks, holding one up. 

Mr. Stark points at a cabinet behind him and Peter turns around. 

“Second shelf.” he says. 

Peter puts away the dish. And goes to the dishwasher to begin putting away the cutlery. 

“I was thinking of going out today.” Begins the man. 

Peter looks up from the forks.

“Do some shopping. What do you think?”

“Um. That could be fun.” Peter ventures. 

“Great! Where would you like to go?”

  
Peter shrugs and resumes putting away the cutlery. 

“I don’t really have a preference,” he says. 

“I was thinking after we hit up the grocery store, we could go to the toy store. You know, for Morgan.” Tony says smoothly.

  
Peter blinks. 

“Oh. Yeah, we could do that.”

“Alright, let me get dressed and we can hit the road.” he says, drying his hands.

  
It never fails to weird Peter out when he sees Mr. Stark in pajamas. He and the man were close in a mentor/mentee way before the snap but this was something else. Peter couldn’t put his finger on what it was. 

He finishes putting away the dishes and goes back to his room. His blanket had fallen on the floor at some point and he picks it up, setting it on the bed before sitting down. He unplugs his phone and swipes away any notifications he’d gotten while sleeping. Not one of them is a text from his best friend. He sighed and wondered what Ned and his new girlfriend Betty were up to. Probably watching the new Star Wars movies that had come out during the snap. The ones he and Ned had planned to watch together. He sighs again and opens a little game and starts to play, waiting for everyone to be done. 

They’re finally packing into the car. It’s one of Mr. Stark’s many Audis. It doesn’t look too noticeable from the outside but the inside is unlike any car Peter’s ever seen. It has a large screen where the radio and air conditioning controls are in Aunt May’s car- that boots up as Mr. Stark turns it on. Pepper finishes buckling Morgan in and takes a seat in the passenger seat. They look like a normal family, thinks Peter. It brings a warm feeling to his chest. He’s always wondered what the families on TV were like with two parents and two kids. Mr. Stark pulls out of the driveway.

And suddenly he feels out of place. Like he doesn’t belong here. This wasn’t really his family. Tony and Pepper had a biological kid, he was just kinda there on the side. He wondered if that was why no one had bothered to buy him anything. But he immediately dismisses the idea. They probably just haven’t gotten around to it. Mr. Stark said they were going to the grocery store today. He hopes they’re going to buy something for him. He thinks that it’s a little selfish that he wants things from them but he just can’t stand the kids toiletries anymore. He needs something for himself. 

They pull up to The Compound an hour later to drop off Pepper. She exits the car, waving to all of them.

“I’m sorry I can’t come shopping with you guys today,” she says. 

“But I’ll make it up to you. I’ll see you all later.”

“Bye, Mommy!” 

“See you later, Pep.”

They wave again and pull away as she disappears into the building. 

Morgan has her thumbnail in her mouth as she looks out the window. Rock music plays softly through the stereo in the car.

“Morgan hands out of your mouth.” says Tony, suddenly. 

“But, _Daddy_ , Petey has _his_ thumb in his mouth.” she complains. 

Peter blushes, he hadn’t noticed he’s been sucking his thumb and he removes it.

“That goes for you too, Pete.” he says. 

Peter blushes even harder and looks out the window. 

They arrive at a fancy grocery store that Peter’s never been to before. They park and Peter takes off his seatbelt. He waits to get out of the car until Mr. Stark goes and takes out Morgan. They walk across the parking lot and Morgan skips, holding her father's hands. Peter walks in the back feeling slightly left out. 

It’s an average sized grocery store but it looks pretty nice inside. They grab a cart and Morgan climbs onto the end of it holding tightly as Mr. Stark pushes it into the store. She enjoys the feeling of the cart moving, it’s like a ride at the fair, she thinks. Not that she’s ever been to the fair before, but she’s heard wonderful things from her classmates.

  
They’re in the snack aisle and Mr. Stark is reading a box of granola bars with his reading glasses. He looks old, Peter thinks. It makes him sad. Peter shakes it off and picks up a box himself. It’s a box of Nutrigrain bars. He’s never liked them, they were far too sweet. He puts them back on the shelf. 

Morgan climbs off the cart and crouches down to the bottom shelf, grabbing a box of oatmeal iced cookies. 

“Daddy? Can we get cookies?” she asks, standing up. 

“You only get to pick one sweet on this trip, honey. Is that the one you want?” Mr. Stark says not looking up from where he’s reading. 

Morgan groans. 

“ _One_ sweet?” 

“One sweet.” 

She groans again but puts the cookies in the cart. 

Peter laughs a little and resumes looking through the snacks. 

“You can pick one too, Pete.” Mr. Stark says tossing the box of bars into the cart.

“You don’t have to do that...” Peter replies.

He wants a snack of some kind just so he doesn’t have to keep eating whatever Morgan chooses, but he feels obligated not to let Mr. Stark buy him anything. It’s not his money to spend. 

“Pick a snack, Peter.” the man says leaving no room for argument. 

Peter sighs but is secretly pleased, if only so he has something to eat. He feels obligated to get something Mr. Stark will approve of so he grabs a box of granola bars with chocolate chips on them.

“Is this okay?”

“Whatever you want to get.”

  
Peter puts the box in the cart. Mr. Stark sees him eying a box of sugar cookies and the man tosses those in as well. Morgan doesn't seem to notice. 

They go to the toiletries section of the store and Mr. Stark grabs a couple things for the house. 

“Go pick out some things, Peter.” he says and Peter doesn’t think twice watching as Morgan grabs a refill of _Watermelon Blast._

He goes to the men’s section and grabs hair gel, shampoo, conditioner and a soap he likes among other necessities,. Then after setting them in the cart, he heads to the toothpaste part of the aisle. He looks at his options. They are all mint of some variation. Winter mist, Peppermint, Arctic Cool, ect. He sighs, last time he had mint toothpaste it burned in his mouth for days after. It took him awhile to realize the rash that had developed on his face was from the toothpaste. That was the only good thing about using Morgan’s toothpaste, it didn’t burn or give him rashes. He’s probably allergic to mint somehow. 

He crouches down to look at the kid’s toothpastes. They were in assorted fruit flavors and one was even bubblegum. He chooses green apple and is annoyed when he reads the age limit is up to ten and that it’s “safe to swallow”. He hates that he has to use baby toothpaste. He walks back to the cart, toothpaste in hand and puts it in. Mr. Stark is helping Morgan pick out a hair brush when he catches sight of him.

“What’s with the baby toothpaste, kid?” 

Peter blushes.

“I’m allergic to mint.” he says with his arms crossed.

“I didn’t know that.” says the man.

Peter shrugs and Mr. Stark turns back to his daughter. 

“But this one has sparkles, Daddy.” says Morgan, holding out a comb.

“Then that’s the one.” he replies, taking it from her and putting it in the cart. She smiles. 

They finish their shopping and stuff the bags into the trunk of the car. Tony buckles in the little girl as Peter finishes putting away the bags. He decides to sit in the passenger seat this time and closes the trunk. He opens the door and sits in the front seat next to Tony who turns on the car. The heating turns on and Peter is grateful, he was getting a little chilly. The radio turns on and Welcome to the Jungle starts to play. 

“Is this AC/DC?” Peter asks. He has heard many many 80’s rock songs thanks to Mr. Stark, but the band names get all turned around in his head.

“You are uncultured.” The man replies. “This is Guns N’ Roses.”

“Oh.” 

Mr. Stark turns the music up louder to sing along and Peter smiles. It feels a little like old times. They reach the toy store in record time. It’s a little local toy store. Mr. Stark unbuckles Morgan, putting her on his hip and they all go inside. The place looks deserted except for the bored cashier and a little bell rings when they enter. Mr. Stark puts the little girl down and she runs to the far wall which is lined with stuffed animals. They follow her. 

Morgan has been to this toy store hundreds of times so she knows exactly where everything is. She sits down on her knees near the bottom shelf and picks up a white stuffed cat, petting it’s fluffy fur. Her Daddy and Peter have caught up to her but she doesn’t look at them from her spot on the floor. Her Daddy sighs and Peter lets out a chuckle. She doesn’t know what’s so funny.

“Morgan, please stand up, the floor is dirty.” Tony says exasperated. 

Morgan does so but only so she can reach a higher shelf. Peter looks at the toys, there’s so many of them. He reaches out and pets a couple, feeling the softness under his hand. Their glass eyes looking back at him. He spots a spider stuffie and smiles, it would be hilarious if he owned one of those. But he doesn’t particularly like spiders, he’s only Spider-Man because it was a spider that bit him and it made sense. They have way too many eyes, he thinks. He crouches down to the floor to look at the bottom shelf and Morgan gives him a look before crouching down, too. Tony watches, amused. 

“Do you like puppies?” asks Morgan from her position on the floor.

“Who doesn’t like puppies?” Peter replies. 

“I like puppies but Daddy says we can’t have one because we have Gerald.” she says woefully. 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” she agrees. 

She stands up and rushes to Tony.

“Daaaaddy. Can I pick out a toy?” she asks, taking his hands and leaning back. He doesn’t let her fall. 

“You have a million toys, Maguna. You can pick out _one_.” he holds up one finger.

“And Peter gets to pick out one, too,” he says.

Peter looks up from his position on the floor.

“But, Daddy,” she wracked her brain. “Peter has a teddy already.” 

“And you have a million.” 

She pouts letting go of his hands to cross her arms.

“You don’t need one, do you Petey?” she asks, turning around. 

Peter stands up from the floor. He looks longingly at the stuffed dog he’d been looking at. But Morgan was right, he didn’t need it. He was sixteen years old. He didn’t need toys anymore. 

“No, I’m okay.” he replies. 

Mr. Stark groans.

  
“Peter, just pick one out.” 

Peter is torn between pleasing them both. He decides Mr. Stark’s opinion is more important to him and he bends down and picks up the dog. It’s supposed to represent a golden retriever, he thinks. It’s very soft and squishy and the legs dangle. Tony steps forward to help them choose stuffed animals. 

“This one would be really funny.” says Mr. Stark showing Peter the spider. Peter nods with a smile. 

“It’d be hilarious, but I don’t like how many eyes it has.” 

“How ironic.” Tony says dryly. 

“Daddy,” Morgan says, pulling on his sleeve.

“Hold on a second, Honey, I’m talking to Peter.” and they go back to chatting.

Morgan doesn’t like her Daddy talking to Peter. The attention should be on her, not Peter. 

“But Daddy.” 

“Baby, hold on.”

Morgan pouts. She suddenly gets the feeling her Daddy likes Peter more than her. At least at this moment. That will not do. 

“I want a toy.” she whines.

“Then pick one out, Morg.” sighs Tony.

“No, I need help. Carry me?”

“Honey, I’m a little busy.”

  
So, Peter _was_ more important than her? At this Morgan bursts into tears. Peter panics and sets his wide eyes on Mr. Stark who seems unfazed. The man crosses his arms. 

“Really, Morgan? Are we really gonna do this now?” 

He looks at Peter. 

“Tantrum.” he explains.

Morgan sobs, rubbing her eyes with her fists. 

Morgan wants to stop him from talking to Peter but she doesn’t know what she wants to say. Her emotions are making her brain muddled. All she knows is that Peter is trying to take her Dad away.

“Morgan, calm down.”

“No!” she cries.

“Let’s go take a walk.” Tony says. 

“Peter go take a look around. We’ll be right back.” 

Tony picks up the crying girl and puts her on his hip. She sobs into his shoulder as they leave the store. Her wish of her Daddy stopping his chat with Peter is granted and she sniffs. She hopes that he really doesn’t like Peter more than her. That would break her heart.

Peter feels a little lost as the bell signals their departure. He’s unsure what to do now. He carries the toy around and wanders down the aisles for a few minutes. The LEGO aisle is super interesting and there are a ton of them on the shelves. He sees a LEGO Death Star and thinks of Ned. He wonders how he’s doing and pulls out his phone from his pocket. No new texts. He opens his messages. 

‘Hey’ he sends. 

He stares at it for a minute but there’s no response, not even a ‘seen’ so he puts his phone away. He walks up to the counter and pulls out his wallet. He has a few dollars from before the snap which he uses to purchase the toy. He denies a bag and takes his receipt carrying the dog and walking out the door. The tiny bell rings as he exits. He’s reading his receipt as he leaves and he looks up when he reaches the sidewalk. 

Mr. Stark’s car is gone. They’d left him behind. He isn’t sure what to do in this situation. He walks up to the curb and sits, the dog in his lap and pulls out his phone. He brings up his contacts, calling Mr. Stark. He puts the phone to his ear and hears it ringing. There’s no answer. He calls again. But again there’s no answer. His mood declines. Where did they go? 

_They finally got rid of you_ , says a small voice in his head. He shakes his head to dispel the thought. But doubt creeps in. He calls a third time.

“ _Please leave your message for 518-_ ”

He hangs up. He calls Pepper who answers on the first ring. 

“I’m sorry, Peter, I can’t talk right now, I’m in a meeting. I’ll call you later.” and she hangs up. Peter feels tears well up in his eyes. He wipes them away. He’s Spider-Man, this was ridiculous. But he has no way of getting home. Even if he had his web shooters, he doesn’t have his suit nor does he know the way back. He sniffles and a tear or two slips out. _They don't love you. They forgot about you. They always forget about you. No one cares._

Behind him he hears the little bell ring and someone steps out. He hurriedly wipes his face with his sleeves.   
“They left you out here, didn’t they.” It’s not a question. 

Peter says nothing. The cashier is only a few years older than he is and she lights a cigarette before sitting next to him on the curb. 

“You need to call someone?” she asks. 

He holds up her phone without looking at her. 

“I have a phone.” he says quietly. 

She hums. They sit there silently. Peter is grateful the smoke of her cigarette is going the opposite direction from his face but the smell makes him grimace.

“How old are you?” she asks.

Peter hesitates for a minute before answering. 

“Sixteen.”

  
“How come you don’t just walk home?”

“I don’t know where I live.”

  
“How do you not know where you live?”

Peter glares at her a minute. 

“No need to get all huffy with me.” she says. 

Peter looks back out to the parking lot. She stretches out, her boots out in front of her. 

“Did you disappear?” she asks after a while. Peter says nothing.

“Is that why you don’t know where you live? Did they move without you?” she prys.

Peter feels the urge to cry come back but doesn’t. He doesn’t want to cry in front of some stranger.

“You have a little sister.” she says taking a drag from her cigarette. 

“Did she disappear, too? Or were you replaced?”

  
Peter feels like he’s been slapped. Then he feels insulted. Who was she to insinuate things like that? _It’s true though_ , says his mind. _They did replace you. Why would they ever come back for you? May left you, who’s to say they won’t do the same?_ Peter’s anger vanishes with that thought and depression takes its place. He feels sad. His eyes well up with tears. They overflow and fall down his cheeks, he wipes them away quickly. The girl’s not looking at him.

“I know how it feels.” she says. “They moved on without me, too. I was lucky to get this job, they kicked me out of college. Ended up with a little brother -he’s three now.”

She takes a drag from her cigarette and blows the smoke away.

“ I missed his entire life.”

  
To be honest, Peter doesn’t really care. He holds the dog in his lap. 

“Was that your dad? He forgets you’re back a lot doesn’t he? That’s why you’re still here.” Peter hides his face in his arms. He’s embarrassed.

“Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Do they even care about me?” She's talking about herself, but Peter can’t help but relate. It’s like she’s in his head. He hates it. 

“But I’m sure they do, right?” she asks, breathing in the smoke. She lets it out in a wistful sigh. 

Peter isn’t sure they do and he feels himself start to crack further. 

“They can’t just forget about you.” she says. “Like, you’re their _kid_.” 

She’d been looking out into the parking lot the whole time, just speaking her mind but Peter can’t hear anymore, he feels like his head is underwater. He starts to actually cry and she finally notices, when he gulps out a small sob. 

“Oh, _shit_. I’m so sorry. I was just ranting. I didn’t mean to make you cry. I was just saying my thoughts out loud.” she tries to amend. “I’m really sorry.” 

She puts out her cigarette on the concrete and pats his back softly as he sobs quietly. 

Suddenly, a black car pulls into the lot and they both look up. Mr. Stark rushes out of the car and slams the door shut jogging over. He crouches down in front of them. Peter feels a rush of relief. He could get out of here. He rubs his eyes with his arms and his tears catch on the plaid fabric of his button down. 

“You forgot about him.” says the girl with the eyeliner accusingly. 

“I don’t recall this involving you.” Tony says to the girl. She glares at him but he doesn’t care.

Tony looks at the boy, he’s been crying. He stands up and pulls the boy to his feet before crushing him to his side. They start walking to the car. The girl stands up and watches them leave.

  
“I’m so sorry, Pete. I just took Morgan around the block a few times to calm her down.” he says.

Peter sniffles and Tony guides him into the car opening and then closing his door for him. Peter puts on his seatbelt and wipes his face. 

Morgan is sleeping, he notices. He looks out the window as Tony pulls out of the parking lot. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now what?
> 
> And I’ve been wondering for months: What kind of music do you think Peter listens to?  
> These chapters get longer and longer every time lol  
> Leave a comment and we can chat! What do you think of this chapter? It it alright? Is it following the flow of the story so far?


	10. Uncle Brucie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Vomit Warning again*

The car ride home was awkward and silent. Mr. Stark had explained that ever since Morgan was a baby, he’d take her on car rides to calm down. He didn’t know Peter would have left the store early or Morgan would take so long to soothe. Peter had shrugged noncommittally and went back to looking out the window. That girl had been right. He had been replaced. Another piece of his heart had broken. At this point, there were only so many pieces left. 

They made it home and Peter lethargically got out of the car. They’d missed lunch and he was starting to feel a little lightheaded. Mr. Stark got Morgan out of the car, carrying her because she was still sleeping. Peter desperately wanted someone to carry him too, but he knew he was far too heavy and the thought was just ridiculous. He closed the door, leaning on the car for a moment. Mr. Stark watched him. 

“You good, kid?” 

Peter nodded but didn’t straighten out.   
“I’m gonna put Morgan down, I’ll be right back and we can put the groceries away.”

“Okay.” he replied.

His stuffed animal was still in the car, so he turned around and opened the door, retrieving it. Then resumed his position leaning against the door. After a few minutes, Mr. Stark was back, his hands free. 

“Let’s get to work.” he said.

Tony opened the trunk and Peter followed. Inside were about a dozen bags. They started grabbing them. With Peter’s usual strength he could take all the bags at once, albeit a bit awkward and bulky, but today, with the lack of food, he could hardly handle the seven he’d insisted he carry. By the time he reached the kitchen archway, he was struggling and feeling faint. He dropped the bags on the tile and when he stood up, the room was spinning. He stumbled back a step, holding onto his head. 

“Mr. Stark?” he called. 

There was no answer. 

“Think ‘m gonna pass out…” 

He took a deep breath and felt himself fall backwards like a bag of bricks. He hit the back of his head on the granite kitchen counter and everything went black before he hit the floor. 

He woke up and someone was patting his face. They had really tiny hands. He groaned and felt his eyes rolling around in his head. It was a really strange sensation. Someone else was yelling his name from another room. They crashed down next to the smaller person. 

“Peter? Wake up for me, bud.” Mr. Stark?

“M’sr s’rk?”   
He felt bigger hands on him now. One cupped his cheek and the other was on his shoulder. 

“Is Petey okay?” So, Morgan was the smaller person. He laughed to himself, who else would it be?

“He will be.” replied Tony. 

“Pete? You need to wake up for me now.”

Peter felt like he was underwater. He could hear them but they were muffled. Suddenly, everything was clear. And loud. He winced. He could hear _everything_. They were breathing loudly and he could hear their hearts beating and the lights and the appliances buzzing. There was a faint ringing. He slowly brought his hands up to his ears. Everything was so loud. Someone lifted his head and shoved a towel underneath. 

“Is he bleeding?” asks Morgan. It’s muffled from behind his hands. 

“A little, but not too much.” replies Tony. 

“Can you open your eyes, Peter?”

Peter isn’t sure. He cracked his eyes open only to immediately shut them tightly. From his position on the floor, the lights in the kitchen above him were blinding.

“FRIDAY can you run a diagnostic?” 

“ _Of course, Boss. Symptoms of a concussion are present, but the wound is closing slowly. I suggest a cold compress. Stitches are not required. Emergency room is recommended. Bed-rest, pain relievers and close monitoring are suggested._ ” 

Tony sighed. 

“Emergency room, huh?”

  
“ _Correct, Sir._ ”

“Thanks, Fri.”

Peter groaned from the floor. Since when was FRIDAY so _loud_? 

“Let’s get you to bed, Pete. I’m sure that would be much more comfortable. I’ll call Bruce.”

There were arms suddenly under his, pulling him to a sitting position. He felt a little loopy. Peter blinked and was being dragged to his feet. 

“Come on kid, I can’t carry you.” Mr. Stark grunted. 

Peter straightened himself out until he was leaning against the man. 

“There we go.” 

“Daddy! I want to help.” 

“Sure, Morg.” he wracked his brain for something trivial she could do. 

“Open Peter’s door for me.” 

Morgan nodded, rushing past them as they shuffled into the living room. She ran up the stairs and threw the guest room door open. She ran back to them.

“I did it, Daddy!” she exclaimed, beaming. 

“Good job, Morg.” he grunted out, straining under the teenager’s weight. 

“Mr. Stark- I- my stomach.” Peter brought a hand to his stomach and rubbed it. He was starting to feel sick now that he was standing. Mr. Stark seemed alarmed and turned to Morgan.  
“Honey, go get the trash can under the kitchen sink. The little one.” he said. 

Morgan seemed to sense the alarm and ran into the kitchen. 

Peter was sweating, and dizzy. He could feel himself grow pale. His hands started to shake.

“Morgan! Hurry up!”

There was clanging in the kitchen. There wasn’t enough time. The nausea was building and suddenly it was too much. He pitched forward and threw up all over his shoes and the hardwood flooring. 

“Shit.” cursed Mr. Stark. 

There wasn’t much to throw up though, since he’d already digested his tiny breakfast and he hadn’t had anything since. It was mostly spit and bile. He coughed harshly.

“Here, Pete. Why don’t you sit on the couch.” He felt himself being turned around and lowered onto the couch behind him. Morgan rushed in with the trash can. 

“Ew.” she said spotting the mess. 

Mr. Stark sighed and took the trash can from her. He set it next to the boy on the couch. 

“Go to your room, Maguna. I need to change Peter out of these clothes.”

Morgan wrinkles her nose at the vomit on the boy’s shoes but does as she’s told.   
“I’ll be right back, Pete.” Mr. Stark pats his arm.

“Mmhmm.” Peter lays down on his back, but keeps his feet on the floor. He covers his face with his arms to block out any sensory input. 

Mr. Stark is back faster than he should have been and Peter wonders how that was possible. He’s going through the probability of Mr. Stark possibly gaining super speed while he was gone when the man pats his arm again.

“I brought you some new clothes.” 

Peter uncovers his face and squints in the light. He sits up, blinking slowly. Mr. Stark crouches down in front of him and unties his shoes for him, mindful of the puke. Peter remembers Mr. Stark helping Morgan with her shoes before school and is suddenly overwrought with emotion. He wonders if concussions can mess with that kind of stuff. He feels sad. He feels lonely. A tear rolls down his cheek. He doesn't have the coordination to wipe it away properly and it smears across his face. He sniffs and Mr. Stark looks up. He looks concerned- another tear rolls down.

“Peter? Why are you crying?” 

Peter shrugs. 

“You- you always help Morgan with her shoes.” he says waterily. 

“I do.” Mr. Stark says, a question on his face. 

“But- you. You don’t help _me_.” he isn’t talking about his shoes. 

He wants to tell Mr. Stark how he feels. How he’s been feeling left out and alone but he can’t find the words. 

“Do you need help with your shoes?” Mr. Stark asks, confused. 

Peter buries his face in his hands and shakes his head. 

“I don’t understand.” he says. 

Peter thinks that it’s the first time he’s heard the man admit that. He shrugs and Mr. Stark pulls off his shoes, tossing them to the side.

He pats the boy’s leg. 

“Hey, let’s change your pants, quickly.” he says. 

Peter uncovers his face and pulls down his jeans. They are wet at the bottom from where he’d vomited. Mr. Stark helps him pull on some grey sweatpants and Peter brings his legs to his chest. He hides his face in his hands again. 

He misses physical contact. Ever since the snap he’s felt so alone and forgotten. The girl had been right. He’d been replaced and no one cared about him. Not May or Happy, not Ned, not Pepper, not Mr. Stark and certainly not Morgan. Last night had been a fluke. Morgan didn’t care, not really. She was just scared in the moment. 

The man leaves the room and goes into the kitchen, coming back with a plastic bag. He stuffs Peter’s soiled clothing inside and wipes up the mess with some paper towels. Peter looks up. 

“Mr. Stark, I can get that… You don’t have to, it’s really gross.”  
“Kid, you can hardly stand up. I’ve done this a million times for Morgan and Pepper, it’s fine.” 

Peter feels chastised and the urge to cry comes back in full force. He blinks back the tears. Mr. Stark leaves to throw the towels away and comes back with the stuffed dog he’d purchased earlier. 

“Here,” he says, handing Peter the dog. The boy takes it and hugs it to his chest. 

“Lay down, I’ll be right back.” 

Tony leaves and Peter curls up on the couch, laying his head down on the cushions. Mr. Stark comes back with his navy blanket and drapes it over him. He pats Peter’s back. _This is nice_ , he thinks. 

“I’m gonna go check on Morgan.” The man says, and the illusion is shattered. He’s leaving and Peter feels separation anxiety grow in him. 

“Please stay.” 

“I’ve gotta go check on Morgan, bud. Take a nap. I’ll call Bruce, too.” 

Peter feels the tears build up again and they slip down from his eyes and land in perfect circles on the couch. Mr. Stark doesn’t seem to notice. He leaves. 

This always happened. Morgan _always_ came first. Peter feels resentment build up. But she was their biological child. He was not. He shouldn’t be feeling this way, it wasn’t his place. _You’re their kid._ He remembers the cashier saying. Was he though? He feels his resentment deflate. It would be better if he just stayed out of the way. Let them be the happy family they wanted to be. He could just be in the background like they wanted him. Like everyone wanted him to. He’d never felt so alone. 

There were dried tears on his face which was blotchy and red from crying. He was sucking his thumb with his dog and his blanket clutched to his chest. Mr. Stark walked in, he took one look at Peter and was immediately concerned. Peter removed his thumb. Tony crouched in front of the boy lying on the couch.

“Hey, bud. What’s the matter?”

“I’m fine.”

Mr. Stark rubbed his arm. He had a strange look on his face. 

“Have you been crying again?” 

Peter rolled onto his back and shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about it. 

“Hmm.” hummed Mr. Stark. 

Peter rolled until he faced the back of the couch. 

“Are you hungry?” the man asked. 

The kid shrugged again. He wasn’t really hungry but his blood sugar being low was what made him fall over earlier. 

“Can I have some juice?”

  
“Whatever you want, kid.” and the man went into the kitchen. 

He arrived a few minutes later with a cup of orange juice and Peter sat up, the blanket and stuffed toy falling into his lap.

“Thank you.”

It was in a plastic cup. He wasn’t surprised. He took the drink and sipped at it. He felt much better already since he’d laid down for a while. He guessed he had his super healing to thank for that. 

“Bruce should be here any minute to take a look at your head.” Tony said. As soon as he said that, there was a knock at the door. Morgan rushed down the stairs.

“Speak of the devil…” 

Tony went to answer the door but Morgan got there first.

She hung onto the doorknob.

  
“Can I answer it? Please?” she asked.

“Go ahead.” 

Morgan beamed and opened the door.

“Uncle Brucie!” she jumped up and down. 

“Morgan, how are you?” 

Peter craned his neck to watch from the couch. Bruce patted Morgan’s head. He had a medical bag with him.

“Where’s Peter?” asked the doctor.

Morgan pointed backwards towards the couch from the hallway. Bruce went further into the home.   
“Ah! Peter.” he said when he spotted the boy sitting on the couch. He walked towards him.

Peter had to admit, he was a little star struck. Okay, maybe more than a little. His favorite scientist of all time was walking over to him! Peter felt his mouth drop open a little. 

“Watch out, Pete. You’ll catch flies that way.” said Mr. Stark, laughing a little. Peter shut his mouth and Bruce chuckled. 

Bruce crouched in front of him at the couch and studied him for a moment before he spoke.

“I heard you fell, Pete. What happened?”

Peter thought back. 

“I haven’t eaten enough today.”

“Why’s that?” Bruce stood up and looked at the back of his head. “You and Cap have pretty fast metabolisms. Right?”

Peter nodded and he saw Tony pale. Mr. Stark sighed deeply and ran a hand down his face. He’d completely forgotten about Peter’s metabolism. 

“Fuck.” he swore softly. 

Morgan giggled. 

“I can’t eat though.” Peter added. 

“Why not?” 

Bruce went through his bag and pulled out a few medical instruments he’d taken from the medbay before coming here. 

“I don’t know.” 

“What happens when you eat?” asked the man. He shined a light in Peter’s eyes and the boy leaned away wincing. 

“Ow.” 

“Sorry. What happens when you eat, Peter?”

“I throw it up.” Peter replied. 

“Hmm. We could run some tests at the Compound, rule out any illnesses. But we’ll have to take some bloodwork.”

  
Peter felt himself pale. He didn’t like needles. In fact he was terrified of them.

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary… I’ll be fine.” he gulped.

“Bloodwork is necessary if we want to find out the problem.” the man replied. 

Morgan was getting impatient. Peter was getting all the attention right now and she’d tried to be accommodating by letting him get checked out by Uncle Bruce, but it was getting irritating. She suddenly noticed something fluffy on the couch next to Peter’s baby blanket. She walked over to check it out. It was the puppy from the toy store. 

Morgan felt herself grow angry. How come Daddy bought Peter a toy but not her? She hadn’t gotten anything from the store. She didn’t even see him buy it but the proof that he did was sitting right there. She felt tears well up in her eyes. It wasn’t fair. She picked up the puppy.

Peter saw something move out of the corner of his eye as Bruce checked his head. He was wiping the dried blood out of his hair. He felt the stuffed toy he’d had next to him slide past his leg. He reached out to grab it without moving too much before it fell, but was too slow and it disappeared. It must have fallen onto the floor, he wasn’t too worried about it. 

Bruce applied a topical ointment to the wound on the back of his head and was finally done. He stepped back and Peter could see the room again. His heart dropped when he saw Morgan holding the dog. 

“Mo, that’s mine, give it back.” 

Tony and Bruce looked down and saw Morgan holding the toy. Morgan shook her head. 

“Morgan, give it back to your brother.” spoke Tony. 

She shook her head again.

“No.” 

“Mo, that’s not yours.” 

She sniffled.

  
“But, I want it.” 

“You have a ton of toys. That one is Peter’s.” 

Peter felt his face burn at the fact that Dr. Bruce Banner, his favorite scientist, now knew he had a toy. 

“No.” she stayed stubborn. 

“Mo, please.” pleaded Peter from the couch.

“No!” 

She ran upstairs and Tony followed after her. Peter felt his face fall. Bruce turned to him.

“Does she do that a lot?”

Peter only nodded.

“Hmm. I guess siblings are like that sometimes.” he said. 

Peter shrugged. He’d never had a sibling before, so it could be true, but he had nothing to base it on.

“Seems stressful though.” he said, and looked at Peter. 

“Yeah…” the teen replied.

“What else does she do?” 

Memories of all the things Morgan had done to him flashed through his mind. But he wasn’t about to tell Dr. Bruce Banner about his problems. He could handle it. He shrugged again in answer. Bruce nodded.

“Well, rest up and you’ll probably feel better by tomorrow. If you don’t, don’t hesitate to stop by the medbay and Dr. Cho or I will take care of you.” 

Peter nodded. 

“If you need someone to talk to, I can do that too. I’m no psychiatrist, but I can listen if you need to.” 

“Okay. Thank you, Dr. Banner.”

“No problem, Pete.”

Tony walked back into the room, holding the toy. He handed it to the boy. Peter took it and held it in his lap.

“Thank you.” Peter said softly.

“Well, I guess I’ll be taking my leave.” spoke Dr. Banner. 

“Nonsense, you should stay for dinner, Brucie.” 

“I really shouldn’t. I have to get back to the lab.” 

“Are you sure?”

  
“Yeah, it’s fine Tony. Thank you for the offer. I’ll see you all later. Come by the compound and we’ll get some of that bloodwork done.”

Peter paled.

“Will do.” Tony saluted, walking the scientist to the door.

He closed the door and the man was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love u guys. Thanks for reading. I was writing this chapter but it was getting too long so I cut it in half. Currently working on the second half. And only one person answered me: what kind of music do you think Peter listens to? And what do you think of the new title for the 3rd movie? I hear they might kill Aunt May or Ned. Not sure what to think about that.


	11. Go Home, Petey

Peter laid back down and stared at the ceiling. He wondered how Tony had convinced Morgan to give back the toy. He felt troubled. On one hand, he was sixteen years old, he shouldn’t be acting this way. On the other hand, he felt much less alone with the dog. He felt secure and like he needed it to keep from drowning. He wondered when he’d become so attached to the thing. 

He was dozing lightly, facing the couch. Mr. Stark was in the kitchen cooking. He vaguely wondered where Morgan was. That thought was answered when he felt a poke in his side. He rolled over. 

“Hmm?” 

“Hey, Petey. We should play a game.” Morgan whispered. 

“A game?” Peter sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Yes.” 

“What kinda game?” he yawned.

“We should play…” she thought for a moment, putting her hand on her chin in a thinking pose. 

“Oh! We should swim in the lake!” she exclaimed. 

“It’s freezing outside.” Peter deadpanned.

“We could play tag?” 

“In the yard?”  
“Yeah. If we put on our coats it won’t be cold.” she said.

“Okay. One game. ” One game couldn’t hurt. 

  
Peter stood up and Morgan skipped past him to the door. She sat on the floor and pulled on some rain boots. Peter sat next to her and pulled on his own shoes, tightening the laces. He stood up and held out his hand to help her up. She took it. 

“You should bring your puppy.” she said, pulling up the zipper on her jacket.

“I don’t want it to get dirty.” he replied. 

She shrugged.

“Daddy! Me and Petey are going outside to play!” she yelled. 

Peter winced at the volume. He was feeling a lot better but not one hundred percent. She took his hand and dragged him out the front door. 

Peter didn’t remember the last time he played tag. It had to have been in elementary school. He was vague on the rules so Morgan explained.

“You just run and when you touch the other person they’re it! You’re it!” she giggled, tapping him then running away at full speed. 

Peter felt a little ridiculous chasing her around the yard but soon it became fun. He’d caught her a couple times and she’d caught him a couple times as well. Soon they were both breathing heavily. Peter was starting to feel light headed again so he took a moment to sit on the ground. 

“You’re it!” said Morgan tapping him on the shoulder before bolting away. She was ever the ball of energy.

“Hold on Mo, I need a second.” he breathed. He wondered where his strength had gone. And if not eating had something to do with it. He laid back in the grass and looked at the clouds. 

Morgan walked over and blocked his view. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Looking at the clouds.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

She shrugged and sat down next to him, pulling the grass out of the ground. She placed the grass on his stomach in a little pile.

“What are you doing, Mo?”

“Nothing.” she replied. 

He sat up and all the grass tumbled into his lap. She’d created quite the pile. He brushed it off. 

“Hey! You ruined my pile!”

  
“Oh. Sorry. Why were you making a pile _on top of me_?”

“I don’t know, it’s fun.” she replied.

“Gerald eats grass.” she said after a while.

“Does he?”

“Gerald is a girl.”

“Oh.” 

“Do you eat grass?”

  
“Why would I eat grass?”

“I don’t know.”

They were silent for a moment.

“Petey,” she said seriously. “Do you like me?”

“Of course I do, Morgan. Why?” 

“I don’t like it when you take my Daddy.” she said, picking the grass. She felt herself grow irritated with him.

Peter paused. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“I don’t take your Daddy, Morgan.”

“Yes, you do! And I don’t like you.” 

Peter took her Daddy and he knew it. She didn’t know why he was playing dumb. He frowned.

“You don’t like me.” he repeated.

“No.” she confirmed. 

“Then why do you play with me?”

Morgan shrugged, creating a new grass pile in front of her. She wanted to say something to hurt him. For all the pain he’d caused her by stealing her Daddy’s attention all the time. 

“You’re silly. You think Daddy likes you. But he’s just pretending.” she said. 

Peter didn’t respond. He knew she was trying to hurt him by saying awful things. He just didn’t know why. But hearing Tony’s own daughter say she hated him and confirm Peter’s deepest insecurities of Tony hating him too? It worked.

“Mommy doesn’t like you, either.” she continued.

“When are you going home? I don’t like it when you’re here.” she asked, her grass pile growing. 

She looked at Peter who was staring at her grass pile. His face was unreadable but she knew she had hurt his feelings. He looked at her and she could see it in his eyes. 

“ I don’t have a home, Morgan. I live here now.” he tried to make her understand.

“Why don’t you go home with Auntie May and Uncle Happy?”  
“They don’t want me there,” he replied. He started to pick the grass too, just to calm his nerves. 

“Why not?” 

“They just don’t.”

“I don’t want you here, either.”

“That’s rude, Morgan. Where am I supposed to go?”He looked at her.

“ _Home_ , Petey.” she replied. 

“I _am_ home, Morgan.” 

“No! This is _my_ house! You need to go to _your_ house!” 

“I don’t _have_ a house!”

Peter was annoyed and angry- arguing with a five year old over a point that she didn’t understand. He felt even more irritated when she stood up in front of him and suddenly pushed him. He fell back a little, but caught himself with his arms. 

“Morgan! You can’t just push people when you’re mad!” 

She crossed her arms. 

“You’re not the boss of me!” she yelled. 

They glared at each other.

“Fine.” said Peter. “I’m going inside.” 

He stood up and brushed himself off, walking towards the house. He was done with this conversation. Morgan followed and as soon as she was close enough, attempted to push him over. He stumbled a bit. 

“Morgan, stop it!” 

“No!” 

She rushed past him into the house. When he opened the door, Morgan pushed past him again, this time holding something. He turned to look at her as she rushed to the lake. Peter’s eyes widened. She had his toy and _she was gonna throw his dog into the lake._ He ran towards her.

“Morgan, no! Stop!”

She turned to look at him and with her other hand she tossed the toy into the water. 

“Uh-oh.” she said innocently.

He caught up to her and she watched as he got on his knees and reached for the toy floating in the water. He managed to grab it and pulled it out.

  
“That was really mean, Mo.” he said holding the water-logged dog. He squeezed it and greenish water poured out. 

“I don’t like you, Peter. _Go home._ ” she said then ran back into the house. Peter sighed and stood up, he walked in after her holding the wet dog. 

“Woah, what happened?” Asked Tony when he walked in. Mr. Stark set the serving bowl of pasta on the dining room table. 

“Morgan tossed it in the lake.” he grumbled.

“ _Morgan_ tossed it in the lake? You sure you didn’t drop it? You probably shouldn’t have taken it outside.”

“ _I’m sure_. And I didn’t take it outside, _Morgan_ grabbed it off the couch!”

“Drop the attitude kid.”

Peter sighed, frustrated. 

“I just- she always does this kind of stuff.” Peter complained.

“Maybe you guys need to hang out together more. Get to know each other better.” 

“I don’t know… She’s just _mean_. All the time.”

“I’ll talk to her. In the meantime, go put that in the wash and wash your hands. I made enough food to feed a small army.” 

Peter sighed again. He was hungry but not _that_ hungry. And he hoped Mr. Stark would actually talk to Morgan about her behavior and not just brush it off. He went and did as he was told. 

Dinner was awkward and Morgan glared at him from across the table every time Mr. Stark wasn’t looking. Peter made it a point to ignore her. He made it through six bites before he couldn’t do it anymore. He set down his fork. Mr. Stark looked up.

“What’s wrong, Pete. Why aren’t you eating?”

“I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Eat a little bit more.”

“If I eat anymore, I’ll puke.” Peter replied, irritated. 

“Hmm. Maybe Bruce was right, we should go to the Compound for blood tests.” Tony said, swirling his spaghetti on his fork.

Peter’s eyes widened.

  
“No, no bloodwork.” 

“If you can’t eat, it could be something serious.” 

Peter knew he was beat. Mr. Stark was right.

“Please. Please no blood tests.” he pleaded weakly. 

“Peter, you _need_ to get your blood tested. It could be an illness. We don’t know.”

“But-”

“What’s the issue?”

“I don’t- No needles. Please.”

“Is that what this is about?”

Peter didn’t answer. He pushed around his pasta dejectedly.

“Kid, it’s just a little poke, you’ll be fine. I can go with you if you want.” 

Peter trembled but nodded. At least he wouldn’t be alone. 

“We’ll go after school tomorrow and Pepper can look after Morgan.” 

“...Okay.” Peter responded. 

“Okay.” It was settled. 

That night, Peter showered and put on his pajamas, making sure to wear his pull up underneath. He brushed his teeth with his new toothpaste. Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good. Like candy but it was different from Morgan’s toothpaste. Her toothpaste was more sour. 

He crawled into bed at nine, missing his dog. He cuddled his blanket instead, stuffing his thumb in his mouth. He fell into a restless sleep, tossing and turning all night. 

Peter woke up the next morning at six to his alarm ringing shrilly. He shut it off and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Why did school have to start so _early_? He was wet, of course, and frustratedly went into the bathroom, taking his school clothes with him. He changed, wiped himself down and brushed his teeth before walking to the kitchen for breakfast. 

Morgan was sitting at the table, yawning around a bagel. Tony sat next to her, reading his StarkPad and drinking a cup of coffee. 

“Morning.” Peter said tiredly.

“Morning, kid.” 

Morgan said nothing. Peter made his way through the kitchen, toasting a cinnamon bagel and covering it with a generous amount of cream cheese. He sat down with a purple plastic cup of milk. Morgan looked at him from across the kitchen table. She didn’t seem to be mad anymore, just tired. Everyone seemed tired today. No one spoke, just ate their breakfast peacefully. 

There was a honk outside. Happy was here. They all stood up, finishing their bagels and milk. Peter got through about half of it before his gag reflex kicked in. Then they went to the front door, grabbing backpacks and pulling on shoes. Peter stood up and stretched. It was foggy out today, he was glad he’d put on a sweater. 

They made their way to the car and Mr. Stark put Morgan in her carseat like always. He kissed her head, and waved them both goodbye. 

“We’ll hit the Compound later, okay, Pete?” 

Peter nodded and put his backpack between his feet. He was not excited to go to the Compound for once. 

“Be good at school, guys.”

“Bye, Daddy.” spoke Morgan.

And they were off. 

Morgan put on her headphones and watched Sofia the First while Peter put in his earbuds to listen to music. No one spoke and Happy seemed grateful for the silence. They reached Morgan’s school and Happy got out of the car. He opened Morgan’s door and unbuckled her. 

“Hey, Pete, it might take awhile today.”

Peter took out an ear bud to listen to Happy.

“I need to talk to Morgan’s teacher again. You need to come with me.”

Internally, Peter groaned. 

“Okay.” he said instead. He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car, closing the door behind him. Then walked to the otherside where Morgan was putting on her bright pink backpack. Happy took her hand and they began walking into the elementary school. Peter followed and watched as Morgan’s shoes lit up when she walked. 

They entered the school, Happy holding the door for them. Inside, it was swarming with small children and they had to walk carefully around them to get to Morgan’s classroom. It was room 101 and next to the decorated door was a bulletin board. LOOK WHO’S HIDING IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH! It read. And little construction paper pumpkins were scattered around, labeled with the children's names. Brian W., Morgan S., Avalyn L...Wasn’t that Ned’s little sister? 

“You coming?” asked Happy.

And Peter stopped reading the bulletin board.

“Yeah.” the teen replied and followed Happy and Morgan into the classroom. 

Inside, it was like a rainbow had thrown up. There was color everywhere. In the corner of the room, a suncatcher blinded him. He blinked and scooted to the side where the suncatcher wouldn’t hit him in the face. Children ran around like crazy, one or two of them crashing into his legs, and Happy spoke to the teacher about bringing Morgan to school every morning. Peter didn’t really listen. There was just so much to see. Some kids were playing with blocks on a colorful rug. Some were reading books, others playing with LEGOs. Peter counted about eighteen of them including Morgan. He didn’t think he could handle eighteen children and commended the teacher. There were thirty kids in his gym class but it wasn’t the same.

Morgan let go of Happy’s hand and went to put her backpack in her cubby that was marked with her name. She took off her jacket and hung it on the tiny hook inside then dashed off to see some children who were playing with dolls in a corner designed like a tiny wooden kitchen, complete with dress up clothing and plastic food. These kids must be Morgan’s friends. She had quite a few of them he noticed. They were all laughing together. Morgan snuck a peek at him and then whispered something in another little girl’s ear. They giggled together. Peter felt himself grow self conscious all the sudden. The girls looked at him again and snickered. Peter frowned. They were talking about him. 

“Ned, is that Petey?” someone asked. 

Peter turned towards the voice. 

“Ned?” he wondered aloud.

It _was_ Ned. 

“Peter? Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?” the other teen asked from the doorway. 

“Dropping off Morgan? What are you doing here?” Peter replied. 

“Dropping off my little sister with my mom. Morgan and Ava are buddies! Isn’t that weird?”

“Yeah…” 

Peter didn't know what to say. Thankfully, Ned kept talking. 

“Is that Happy? Does he drop you and Morgan off at school everyday?”

Peter nodded.

“That’s so cool.” He gushed. 

“Ned!” said Ned’s little sister, she pulled on his sleeve. 

“What?” 

“It _was_ Petey! Hi, Petey!”

Peter smiled and waved at her. He and Ava didn’t know each other very well, but he’d seen her a few times when he’d gone to Ned’s house. 

“Hey, Ava.” he replied. 

“Ned! I’m gonna go play with Morgan! I love you.” 

“Love you, too! Go put your stuff away first.”

“Okay!” 

Peter watched sadly, he wished his and Morgan’s relationship was better. He bit his lip.

“I’ll see you at school, Peter!” Ned said, then walked out of the classroom.

“See you later, Ned.”

Happy finished talking with the teacher and turned around. Walking back to where Peter was standing by the door. He saw an older boy walk out.

“Let’s get going. Was that Ned?” 

Peter nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Bye, Happy!” yelled Morgan from across the room.   
Happy waved and they walked out of the classroom.

“What’s Ned doing here?”

“He has a little sister in this class.”   
“Oh.”

“Her and Morgan are friends apparently.” 

“What a coincidence.” 

“What’s a coincidence?”

  
“You and Ned are friends, both of your little sisters are friends. It’s interesting, that’s all.” 

“She’s not my little sister.” 

“Don’t let Tony hear you say that. He’d be devastated to hear you two weren't getting along.”

Peter didn’t reply. They made it out to the car and it had started to rain. Peter got in and listened to his music again. When had talking to Ned started to get so awkward? They were supposed to be best friends. Why was it hard to talk to him all the sudden? Peter hadn’t known what to say the whole time. He thought about it the entire way to Midtown. 

They reached the school and Peter exited the car, pulling on his backpack. 

“See you later, Happy.” he said.

“See ya, kid.” The man replied and Peter closed his door. 

He walked into the school and Happy sped away behind him. Peter made his way to his locker and put away his books, grabbing the ones he needed for class. Ned didn’t greet him at his locker like he used to. The first three periods went by slowly and by fourth period, he was tired. The grey rainy sky didn’t help his mood. He sat down at his lab table. 

A few minutes later, Ned walked in but he didn’t sit next to Peter. He sat next to Betty at the table in front of him. Peter frowned. He wanted to say something but anything he thought of seemed childish. Ned could sit wherever he wanted. Peter felt loneliness grow inside him again and he laid his head in his arms on the desk. 

Class began and the teacher droned on about proper lab safety and passed out the chemicals and worksheets. 

“Please partner up and begin.” she said. 

Peter sat for a moment and looked around the room. He didn’t really know anyone in the class that well besides Ned. He wasn’t that much of a social butterfly outside of his suit. He talked a lot but to people he knew and not necessarily to everyone. He suddenly felt very shy. Everyone in the room already had a partner. 

“Parker!” 

Peter looked up. The teacher had called on him.

“Pick a partner, please.”

“Everyone already has a partner.” he told her.

She turned to the class. 

“Does anyone not have a partner yet?”

No one came forward and Peter felt awkward. The teacher counted the class. There was an odd number of students. She sighed. 

“You’re going to have to work on your own.” she told him. 

He nodded and reached into his desk to put on his safety goggles. He got to work by himself. It was tough, working on a partner project by himself- he had to do both parts on his own, writing and experimenting. Ned and Betty turned around in their seats. 

“Hey, Peter, how’s it going?” asked Ned.  
Peter shrugged and continued to write down equations. 

“Why don’t you have a partner?” asked Betty.

“Everyone already has a partner.” he mumbled. He stirred a liquid. 

“Oh.” she replied. 

“Usually, me and Peter are partners,” said Ned.

“But I didn’t want you to be alone,” he told Betty.

“That’s so sweet of you Neddy Bear.” she replied. 

Peter felt annoyed as he wrote his findings on his worksheet. So it was okay for him to be alone instead? _But that’s his girlfriend._ His mind told him. _But we’re supposed to be best friends._ He answered himself. _Were_. The voice corrected him. _Were supposed to be best friends._ It made Peter sad to have to agree with the voice. They _used_ to be best friends.

He wasn’t sure what happened. It wasn’t like Ned had had five years to think about this, he’d been snapped away too. The other boy had just come back and decided in a week that he didn’t want to talk to Peter anymore. After years of friendship. It made Peter wonder what Ned had seen in him that made him not like him anymore. Maybe Peter was too annoying? He knew he tended to ramble but was it too much? Maybe he was just fed up with him and he’d decided he just couldn’t deal with Peter anymore? Peter wasn’t sure. But he’d surely change if it meant he’d get his friend back.

He stirred his chemicals again as class continued. Ned and Betty managed to finish their work way before him since he was by himself and they chatted together. Peter ignored them entirely, trying to focus on his work but it was hard when they were speaking right in front of him. 

“And then Kylo Ren was like- whoosh- with his lightsaber-” Ned said.

“I know!” exclaimed Betty.

They were talking about the new Star Wars movies- because of course they were. Peter tried to tune them out, he hadn’t seen the new movies and the thought that Ned had watched them without him broke his heart a little. He really wanted to tell them to shut up but managed to refrain. They continued their conversation as class came to an end and the bell rang.

Peter was relieved that he had managed to finish the work sheet and handed it in as he walked out the door. It was lunch time.

He got into the lunch line behind Ned and Betty and was annoyed when they continued to talk about the new movies. Peter decided to speak up.

“Guys, can you stop?”  
They turned to him questioningly. 

“I haven’t seen the movies yet and you’re spoiling them all.”

“Oh! Sorry, Peter.” spoke Ned. They turned back around and continued their conversation by whispering. Peter sighed. He could still hear them.

Peter sat down at his usual table like always and Ned and Betty sat across from him. 

“Peter! How was your weekend?” Asked Betty, opening her lunch box.

“It was fine.” he responded. 

“I saw Peter at my sister’s elementary today.”

“What? Really? Why?” Betty asked.

“He was dropping off Morgan. With Happy Hogan- you know, Mr. Stark’s bodyguard.”

“That’s so crazy.”

She opened a string cheese. 

“Do you know Happy, Ned?” she asked. 

“We’ve met once or twice.” 

“Wow! How come?” 

And the conversation continued without Peter. 

The rest of the day went by quickly simply because Peter was dreading going to the Compound. Ned and Betty continued to exclude him. He wondered why the universe insisted on making him alone. First his parents, then Ben, then May, Morgan, Pepper and Tony and now Ned. Was he destined to be alone forever? The thought made him sweat.

  
He walked out to the school parking lot, looking for Happy’s car but was surprised to see Mr. Stark’s car instead. It was the most expensive one in the lot but it wasn’t too flashy, thank god. He walked over to it and climbed into the passenger seat.

“Hey, kid!” said Mr. Stark when he opened the door. 

“Hey, Mr. Stark.” Peter replied. 

He closed the door and situated himself, putting on his seatbelt and setting his bag between his legs on the floor. 

“I hope you don’t mind,” Mr. Stark began.

“But Pepper needed the day off from _work_ and _kids_ -alone time, you know? So, I brought Morgan.” he pointed to the backseat and Peter’s eyes followed. 

Morgan was sitting in the back eating Goldfish and listening to her headphones. She was bobbing her head to the music. Peter groaned internally. 

“It’s fine.” he said aloud. 

“Great! Let’s get going.” and with that, Mr. Stark pulled out of the parking lot. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saw a post the other day that said ILYSM stood for “I love you Spider-Man” and I thought I’d share it with you all.  
> I love you guys thanks for continuing to read! I’ll update again soon, please leave a comment. I live for our conversations in the comments hahah  
> This chapter alone is 21 pages. That’s twice as long as my senior thesis...


	12. Needles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter cries over getting blood drawn is all you need to know.

The fact of the matter was, that Peter  _ did _ mind that Mr. Stark brought Morgan. But there was no other reason for it other than the fact that he just didn’t want her there. 

“Here, kid, I brought this for you.” Said Mr. Stark, snapping him out of his thoughts. They were at a red light and Mr. Stark reached into the back seat and pulled out his stuffed dog, another ziplocked bag of Goldfish and a bottle of water. 

“Thought you might be hungry,” he explained. 

Then gave Peter the snack and the stuffed toy. 

“Oh… Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

“Seriously, Pete, it’s Tony.” 

Peter said nothing, he wasn’t about to stop calling Tony Mr. Stark. That was rude. It was called, Respecting Your Elders.

Peter opened his bag of Goldfish and held his dog in his lap putting the water in the cupholder next to him. 

“You didn’t have to bring me anything…” 

“Of course I did. It wouldn’t be fair of me to bring Morgan something and not you.” 

“Oh...Um….” Peter paused. He thought of all the times Mr. Stark had taken Morgan’s side on things. How Peter had been punished over it. And then he thought about how that treatment was different from this treatment. “Thank you.” 

“You don’t need to thank me, kid, it’s not like I’m doing anything extraordinary.” 

But to Peter, this  _ was _ extraordinary. He was grateful that things seemed to be changing for the better- at least with Mr. Stark. He munched on his crackers and water the rest of the ride to the compound and found he didn’t gag once. A miracle. Maybe he didn’t need blood work after all. Maybe he was fine. 

“Mr. Stark, I’m feeling better, I don’t think I need blood work…” 

Mr. Stark sighed.   
“There’s no getting out of this one, Bud. You could be getting sick, we need to know what it is so we can prevent it.” he said. 

“But I feel fine.” Peter argued. 

“So you didn’t throw up this one time. What about all the other times?”

Peter didn’t say anything. He sighed. He really didn’t want his blood taken. The closer they got to the Avenger’s Compound, the shakier and quesier he got. And it had nothing to do with the Goldfish. He took a sip of cold water to calm his nerves. 

“Daddy? Are we there yet?” asked Morgan from the backseat. 

“Almost, honey.” replied Tony.

“I’m bored.” she complained. 

Peter shook in the front seat. How could she be bored? He was literally filled with anxiety. But then, he supposed, she wasn’t the one getting the shots. 

“What happened to your music, baby?”

“It got boring. I already know my ABCs.” 

“Why don’t you listen to something else?”

“I don’t know what to listen to.”

They bickered back and forth and Peter tuned them out, dread filling his entire body as they got closer and closer to their destination. 

Morgan suddenly gasped. 

“We’re here!” she clapped. 

Peter felt his heart beating wildly in his chest. If he didn’t calm down soon he’d have a panic attack. He took some deep breaths as they entered the garage. He managed to calm himself, but his hands were still shaking and clammy when they parked. 

The garage was super spacious with a bunch of luxury cars parked inside. Peter felt a little bit in awe every time he saw them, but today, he wasn’t excited. He got out of the car as Tony unbuckled Morgan and shifted nervously in place, holding onto his stuffed toy. He had considered leaving it in the car, but he felt on the verge of a panic attack and the dog helped. He took out his backpack and stuffed it inside- just in case they ran into someone. Then put his bag over one shoulder.

Tony set Morgan down and she set off running towards the elevators, her light-up shoes echoing in the garage as she ran. Peter stayed behind with Tony as the man closed the car door and began to walk. He felt a little like he was walking towards his unfortunate demise as he shuffled behind the man. They reached the elevator and it opened for them.

“ _ Good afternoon, Boss. Good afternoon, Peter and Morgan. _ ” said the AI as she closed the doors for them and started to rise. 

“Hey FRI. Take us to the medbay.” 

“ _ Of course. _ ”

“Hi FRIDAY!” exclaimed Morgan. 

Peter stayed quiet, too absorbed in trying not to panic. They reached the medbay far quicker than he would have liked and they stepped out. Morgan took her father’s hand as they walked down the hall. Peter looked at the ground as he walked to his doom.

They walked until they reached the end of the hallway, into a small room. It had all the necessary medical equipment one would need to run a small clinic. Dr. Banner was there too, looking at something on a hologram.

“Hey guys,” he said when they walked in. He closed the hologram.

“Hey, Brucie.” replied Tony, sitting in a chair.    
“Hi, Uncle Bruce!” said Morgan, plopping onto a chair next to him.

Peter sat down on the bed in the middle of the room and set his bag on the floor. 

“Hi, Doctor Banner.” he said softly.

“Hey, kid. I am almost ready for you,” he held up a syringe then set it on a tray. 

Peter paled considerably and took a deep breath. He would not panic. His stomach clenched. He was okay, he could do this. 

Dr. Banner turned around after putting on some latex gloves. 

“Now, I’m not a medical doctor,” 

Peter felt his heart race. He couldn’t do this.

“but I have done this a million times before. I had to take Cap’s blood to test it, too. Not for the same reason as this of course.” he said vaguely.

Peter felt himself shaking. No one seemed to notice. Dr. Banner walked up to him, taking his tray and setting it on a little table. He took Peter’s arm and pulled up his sleeve. He felt around for the veins. 

“Now, it’s just gonna be a little poke. I’m gonna do it on your right arm.” Peter looked wildly towards Mr. Stark, who just now seemed to notice his panic. The man stood up and was at Peter’s side in an instant. 

“Hey, everything’s gonna be fine.” he told him.    
He took Peter’s hand.

“I wouldn’t advise that.” spoke Dr. Banner, looking up for a moment. “He could crush your hand.”

Tony reluctantly let go and held onto the bars on the side of the bed. He brushed a hand through Peter’s hair. 

“Please no.” said Peter quietly to him. He didn’t want this. He shook his head and gripped his free hand around the blankets just for something to hold on to. 

“I don’t like needles.”

“You’re gonna be fine.” Mr. Stark assured. 

Peter shook his head again. 

“I don’t want to do this.” 

He felt tears rush to his eyes. He was terrified. It was an irrational fear of course, Dr. Banner wasn’t gonna hurt him. He knew this. Yet, he was still afraid. He didn’t want this- not at all. He wanted someone to hold him. Of course, that was something he’d never admit out loud. 

He blinked and the tears raced down his cheeks. 

“Please, Mr. Stark, I don’t want to.”

“Peter,” Mr. Stark sighed. “You’re gonna be fine, it’s just a little poke.”

“No, I don’t want it.” Peter hiccuped. 

“Peter, it’s alright.” said Dr. Banner. 

“No, please.” He felt defeated. His face crumpled in despair and he burst into tears. 

He let out a sob as he leaned over and Mr. Stark caught him, cradling him to his chest.

“Maybe we should take a second,” said Tony.    
Peter hugged the man’s middle, scooting as far from the needle as he could while still remaining on the bed. Tony would protect him. Tony always protected him. Bruce nodded. 

Morgan looked up from her tablet, taking off her headphones when she heard the suspicious sound of someone crying. She set them in the seat her Daddy had vacated, and jumped down from her chair. She walked up to the bed. Peter was weeping into her Daddy’s shirt and her Daddy was rubbing his back.

“Why is Petey crying?” she asked, holding onto the bars that were up on the bed.

“He’s just a little scared.” replied Uncle Bruce.

“Why is he scared?” Morgan fidgeted with the bar. 

“He doesn’t like needles.” Bruce set down the syringe back onto the tray.

“I don’t like needles either, Uncle Bruce.” 

“I don’t think anyone really likes needles, but sometimes they’re a necessary evil.”

“Oh.”

Morgan didn’t quite know what necessary evil meant but she pretended she did.

“Peter, it’s going to be okay.” Her Daddy said.

Peter either didn’t hear or ignored him because he just kept crying. The boy rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands aggressively. He hated that lately anything could make him cry. He let out a sob.

“Do you think we should sedate him?” asked Bruce.

“No, no, no, I don’t think that’ll be necessary.” He peeled Peter away from his shirt. Then pulled a chair closer to the bed and took him by the shoulders. 

“Hey, buddy.”

Two tears rushed down Peter’s face, dripping onto his jeans. 

“You’re going to be okay. I’ll be right here the whole time.” Tony told him. “Don’t worry, it’s not gonna hurt. Right, Brucie?” He looked to the scientist. 

“Right.” Bruce confirmed. 

Peter hiccuped then to everyone’s surprise, jammed his thumb in his mouth. Had it been before the snap or even a week ago, Peter would have been mortified he’d been caught sucking his thumb at all. And to some degree he still was. But right now, the need for comfort overwhelmed any and all other feelings. 

Tony brushed a hand through the boy’s hair sadly. He stood up and pulled him to his chest.

“I think we’re ready now.”

Dr. Banner snapped out of his surprise.

“Right.” he said.

He took Peter’s arm that wasn’t occupied and felt for a vein again. He tied a rubber tourniquet around his upper arm. Then picked up a cotton swab of antiseptic and swiped it over the crook of the kid’s arm, picking up the syringe again.    
“You sure you’re ready?”

Peter said nothing but stayed still in Tony’s hold. A tear fell down his face and Dr. Banner sighed. Tony wiped it away. 

“Let’s get this over with.” 

And he poked the needle through Peter’s skin. The boy flinched but otherwise didn’t move.

“You’re doing great, Peter.” said Bruce, putting a tube into the holder. The blood flowed pretty quickly and soon they’d managed to get three small tubes done. Each with a pastel colored cap. Dr. Banner had taken off the tourniquet at some point and put in another tube quickly. He was going as fast as possible, not wanting to distress the kid any longer than he had to. 

“Almost done,” he said.

Morgan watched in fascination as the blood was collected. She looked at Peter who was no longer crying but was still taking shaky breaths and sniffling behind his thumb. 

“You’re doing so well, Pete.” her Daddy praised. 

Peter didn’t reply as he was focusing on the wall behind her. His hand that was getting the blood drawn from was starting to go numb and he flexed his fingers.    
“Almost there...Got it.” said Dr. Banner, removing the last of the tubes. 

There had been five in total, all filled with dark red blood. It almost looked black since there was so much of it. Bruce put a piece of gauze over the needle before pulling it out. Peter hissed as it was slightly painful when it was removed from his arm. The scientist wrapped his arm with a bandage then replaced Peter’s sleeve over it. There was definitely gonna be a bruise there tomorrow. He gently patted Peter’s leg. 

“All done, kiddo. Tony, can I talk to you for a second?”

Tony rubbed Peter’s back one last time before letting go and the boy accepted it, laying down on the bed curling into a ball. Morgan watched her Daddy and Uncle leave the room. She wasn’t sure what to do with herself now that no one was watching her, because obviously Peter wasn’t watching her. She sat back down in the chair. She decided to sit and wait.

Tony went into the hallway with Bruce, closing the door behind them. They walked a little further from the room so Peter couldn’t hear. 

“What’s going on Tony?” Bruce asked, crossing his arms.

“What? The thumb-sucking?”   
“ _ Yes _ , the thumb-sucking.”

“To be honest? I don’t know.” he said worriedly, looking towards the room his children were in.

“Has he done this before?”

“A few times.” Tony replied. “It’s just a habit that started a few days ago as far as I know.”

“Okay... Has anything else been going on?”

“He uh- he’s wet the bed a couple times.”

“And this has gone on since Titan?”   
“I don’t know.” 

Bruce looked thoughtful.

“Well, it could be stress related. We’ll rule out any illnesses that could cause the stomach issues and the bed-wetting with the blood tests.” 

“Thank you, Bruce. I owe you one.”

“You always say that and nothing ever happens.” Bruce smirked.

“Well, this time I mean it.” Tony promised.

They walked back to the room. 

Peter was still in the same position they’d left him in facing away from the door and Morgan was sitting on one of the chairs. She jumped down.

“Is it time to leave, Daddy?” she asked.

Tony nodded.

“Yes, Maguna, it’s time to go home. Let’s get your brother.” 

She jumped up and down for a moment, excited to go home before grabbing her things off the chairs. Tony approached the boy on the bed. He looked half asleep, though- crying took a lot out of you, he supposed. He caressed his cheek lightly. 

“Hey, Pete. Time to wake up.”    
Peter stirred and blinked sleepily. His face was blotchy and red but the tears had long since dried up. He removed his thumb from his mouth and uncurled from his position. He sat up.

“Is it time to go home?” he asked tiredly.

“Yeah, kid, time to go home.” 

Peter stretched and got out of the bed, he picked up his bag and held it to his chest. Dr. Banner walked in and Peter looked to the ground embarrassed. The man put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, kid. Hope you feel better. We’ll find out about those blood tests, alright?”

Peter nodded. 

“Alright. Thank you, Dr. Banner. And I'm sorry.”

“About what?”

He shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about his freak out, out loud. 

“You don’t need to be sorry about anything. And it’s Bruce, kid.”    
“Good luck with that one, Brucie. I’ve been ‘Mr. Stark’ for years.” Tony chuckled. 

Peter blushed. 

“We’ll work on it.” Bruce told him.

They filed out of the room, after a quick goodbye to the scientist. 

The drive home was uneventful. They reached the cabin just as it was starting to get dark out and exited the car. 

“How about take-out tonight?” announced Tony as they walked through the front door.

Morgan cheered and jumped up and down excitedly.

“Pizza?” 

“We already had pizza two days ago.” Tony told her.

“Oh yeah.” she replied, sitting on the floor and taking off her light up sneakers.

“Peter, what do you want to eat?” asked Mr. Stark. 

“No, Daddy, I wanna choose.” Morgan said, standing in her socks. 

Peter stood awkwardly in the doorway since everyone was crowding the hall and looked up at the mention of his name.   
“Let’s let Peter choose tonight and you can choose tomorrow.” 

“But Daddy-”

“It’s okay, Mr. Stark, I’m not really that hungry anyways.” 

“Are you sure, kiddo?”   
“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Mr. Stark frowned. This whole ‘Peter not eating thing’ was starting to really worry him. When they used to work together in the lab, Peter would eat enough to rival Thor. He wondered what had happened between now and then and hoped the blood tests would clear things up. The kid was already on the thin side, he didn’t want him to lose any weight. 

“I’m gonna order Chinese.” announced Tony. 

Morgan nodded.

“Can we get the little flowers with the cream cheese, Daddy?”   
Tony chuckled and took out his phone to order online.

“Of course. Anything you want in particular, Peter?”   
Peter shook his head. 

“No, I'm okay. Thanks.” 

“I’ll just order the usual then?”

“Sure.” 

And Peter set off to his room. He set down his stuff and took off his shoes, then sat on the bed. He reached for his bag on the floor and searched inside for his homework. The toy he’d stuffed inside rolled out onto the floor. He picked it up and set it on his pillows before getting to work on the book he still needed to read and other homework that needed doing. Dinner came at around seven and Morgan bounded into his room. 

“Dinner is here!” she said before running down the stairs. 

Peter got up and set his book down on the bed before walking into the dining room. On the table, there was a large spread of all kinds of food. Peter sat in his usual spot at the end of the table after grabbing a carton of fried rice and an eggroll. He poured a bit of rice on his plate then replaced the carton onto the table. He nibbled at his food. Tony and Morgan chatted at the other end. 

“Daddy, did you know Ava and me played dollies today?” asked Morgan, shoveling rice into her mouth. 

“I did not, Maguna.” 

“Well, we did. And then we played together on the swings.” 

“Is that right.” 

“It is right, Daddy. And-” 

Tony cut her off and Morgan pouted in her chair.   
“Peter, is that all you’re eating?”

Peter looked up from his plate. 

“What?”

“Is that all you’re gonna eat?” Tony asked again.    
Peter shrugged. 

“I’m not hungry.”

“Well, you’ve gotta eat  _ something _ .” 

“I  _ am _ .” Peter said, getting irritated. 

He poked at his rice with his fork and Tony sighed. 

“Alright, alright. Fine. Just make sure to have a snack later.” 

“Okay.” Peter said, knowing full well, he wouldn't be able to handle a snack later. So he wasn’t gonna even bother trying. 

After dinner, everyone went their separate ways for the night. Peter took a shower and changed into pajamas. He put on his pull-up as quickly and inconspicuously as possible before hurriedly pulling on his sleep pants as if someone would walk in on him. He turned out the light to the bathroom and gathering his clothes off the floor, he went to his bedroom across the hall. He put his laundry away. From his room, he could hear Tony on the phone downstairs. His night light turned on as he turned off the lights and he crawled into bed, hugging his toy to his chest with his thumb in his mouth- listening. But he couldn’t hear whoever was on the other side of the phone. 

“Oh, that’s great. What were they?” spoke Tony. Peter could hear him pacing.

“Oh… that’s- Are you sure? Do you need me to take a look?”

A pause for a response. 

“I get it Bruce, you’re a fully capable scientist but maybe you missed something.” So he was talking to Dr. Banner, most likely about his test results. 

“So you think it’s stress then?” Definitely about his test results. Tony sighed. 

“Yeah.Yeah, I know. What can we do to help him?”   
Pause.

“Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can do that. At the compound?” 

Pause.

“Yes. Mmhm.” he hummed in affirmation.

“Thanks, Brucie. Just let me know what you want and I’ll return the favor. Yes, anything since you helped my kid.” 

Peter felt warm inside. His kid…

“I’ll see if I can do that for you, run it past Pep. Mmhm... Yeah. Have a good night, Bruce.” 

Then he hung up. 

Peter rolled over in his bed to face the window, thinking. So, it was stress then? He  _ was _ stressed. Just the thought of putting on his suit again made his mind go into a frenzy of panicked thoughts. What if he failed again? How was he supposed to continue being Spider-Man after Titan? He’d  _ died _ . He had actually died. And five years later he was back. How was he supposed to continue living as if nothing ever happened? And the thought of everyone having to make room for him? He’d already been replaced  _ twice _ . Once by Morgan and again with May and Happy’s new baby. Where did he fit in? May didn’t want him anymore. He wondered if Tony actually wanted him or if he felt obliged to take care of him since no one else did.  _ My kid _ , he’d said. But maybe he didn’t mean it. Maybe he’d said it because he didn’t know how else to describe their relationship. 

Without a warning, he felt his lower half grow warm. But- but he wasn’t even  _ asleep _ ! How could this  _ happen _ ? A tear rolled down his face. Was this how his life would be from now on? It was in that moment, in a wet diaper, his thumb in his mouth like a baby, and the feeling of being completely alone- he wished he’d stayed dead. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh... Idk if this is good or not. But like... yeah.  
> Read it and let me know.  
> I’m sorry it took so long- I am losing motivation but also ideas.   
> I still want to write this story! But it probably won’t be as quick as it used to be. Not sure what to do next. ILY all. Thank u for reading again!


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